We have MOVED!

Not locations, just websites! We are moving all of our blogs over to WordPress.com

MUCH better blogger world over there! So come and check us out! Click here!

LOTS OF STUFF THERE! INCLUDING A TON OF SEUSSICAL VIDEOS! ENJOY!!!!!

Love you all!!!

Seussical Pictures!

New Quiz

So some people were complaining that my last quiz was misleading, so I have created a new one for you to take. Check it out on the right side of my blog. The scoreboard will keep track of how well everyone is doing with it. So check back every once in a while to see how you compare with others. Have fun!

Sarah and Baby doing well!

Hey everyone! Thanks for your kind comments and congratulations. We are very excited about starting this baby journey all over again. I have to say though, it has been way too long since Sarah was pregnant. It almost feels like the first time all over again. We had forgotten all of the adventures that go along with expecting a new little one. Sarah forgot how tired she gets and how much she wants to eat. I forgot about the odd cravings and phone calls while at the grocery store asking me to pick up random items of food.

It's so much fun though! Thankfully this time around, Sarah is doing well healthwise. She feels queezy occasionally, but hasn't had a lot of throwing up spells yet. We are praying that she will have a much milder pregnancy this time around.

So people keep asking me about names. Sarah and I are weird I guess, in that we have had names picked out for a long time. Right now, for a boy we like Colin Judah, and for a girl we like Nessa Faith. What do you think? We like unconventional names, so I think they are pretty cool.

We are in crunch time for Seussical and Sarah hopes that she will have the strength needed to help me finish this big show. We shall see.

Thank you all for your prayers and support. Let us know how you are and how we can pray for you.

Oh, and by the way . . . it is snowing like crazy around here! I have NO idea why we are at school today and why we didn't have a snow day! I literally had a foot and a half of snow on my car this morning! CRAZY MICHIGAN!

FAMILY UPDATE!

Okay, so the above chart is not one hundred percent accurate, it won't be until we know the exact due date, but I had to put something up!

So here's a quick family update that I promised. Although, this is different than what I originally planned. At first I had planned on posting some recent pictures of the family at Christmas and stuff like that, but that will have to come a little later.

Tonight, God chose to answer a prayer that has been on our hearts for almost 2 years now. If you have been staying up-to-date on our blog, you probably can guess what I am going to say next . . .

WE ARE GOING TO HAVE ANOTHER BABY! Praise the Lord!! We have longed for and prayed for this for so long, it almost doesn't seem possible! But, it's true and we are so grateful to God for his blessing to us.


For those of you that have been praying for us, thank you so much! Now, you can rejoice in God's answered prayer! We get to start this journey again and we are SO excited!

Fun Survey

This looked like fun so I thought I would try it here.

Copy and past this survey into a comment and fill it out. (Make sure you delete my answers.) Put you own answers in . . . or just enjoy some info about me!

1. WHAT CURSE WORD D0 Y0U USE THE M0ST? I don't curse, and if I do get angry, I am usually silent.

2. DO YOU OWN AN IPOD? Yes

3. WHAT PERSON DO YOU TALK TO THE MOST? My wife, Rennah, students

4. WHAT TIME IS Y0UR ALARM CL0CK SET ON? 6:00 a.m.

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? Golden Grahms

6. DO YOU WEAR FLIP FLOPS WHEN ITS COLD? Are you kidding me?

7.WOULD Y0U RATHER TAKE THE PICTURE 0R BE IN THE PICTURE? Take the picture!

8. WHAT WAS THE LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? The Illusionist

9. DO ANY OF YOUR FRIENDS HAVE CHILDREN? Yes

10. HAS ANY0NE EVER CALLED Y0U LAZY? Yes

11. HAVE YOU EVER TAKEN MEDS TO HELP YOU FALL ASLEEP? NyQuil when I am sick at night.

12. WHAT CD IS CURRENTLY IN Y0UR CD PLAYER? Jeremy Camp: Restored

13. DO YOU PREFER REGULAR OR CHOCOLATE MILK? Chocolate, but I love regular too!

14. HAS ANY0NE T0LD Y0U A SECRET THIS WEEK? Yes

15. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HAD STARBUCKS? December

16. CAN Y0U WHISTLE? Yes

17. D0 YOU THINK PE0PLE TALK AB0UT Y0U BEHIND YOUR BACK? I am sure they do!

18. DID Y0U WATCH CARTO0NS AS A CHILD? Yes

19. WHAT M0VIE D0 YOU KNOW EVERY LINE TO? Beauty and the Beast

20. D0 YOU 0WN ANY BAND T-SHIRTS? No

21. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SALAD DRESSING? Salad me? HA!

22. IS ANY0NE IN LOVE WITH Y0U? Most definitely!

23. DO YOU DO YOUR OWN DISHES? Sometimes, but I have a wonderful wife who usually does them.

24. EVER CRY IN PUBLIC? Many times

25. ARE Y0U 0N A DESKT0P COMPUTER 0R A LAP TOP? Desktop (wishing I had a laptop, Macbook Pro!)

26. ARE Y0U CURRENTLY WANTING ANY PIERCINGS 0R TATTOO'S? No

27. WHATS THE WEATHER LIKE? Cold, snowy, ice!

28. W0ULD Y0U EVER DATE S0ME0NE C0VERED IN TATTO0s? No, especially since I am married.

29. WHAT DID YOU DO BEFORE THIS? Taught a music class

30. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU SLEPt ON THE FLOOR? Sometime last month when I could sleep, so I curled up and watched a movie, ended up on the floor all night.

31. H0W MANY H0URS OF SLEEP D0 YOU NEED TO FUNCTION? 6-7, though I rarely get it

32. D0 Y0U EAT BREAKFAST DAILY? No

33. ARE Y0UR DAYS FULL AND FAST PACED? Uh, yeah, that is an understatement for me!

34. D0 Y0U USE SARCASM? Sometimes, with the right people and moment.

35. H0W 0LD WILL Y0U BE TURNING ON Y0UR NEXT BIRTHDAY? 28

40. ARE Y0U PICKY AB0UT SPELLING AND GRAMMAR? Yes

41. HAVE Y0U EVER BEEN TO SIX FLAGS? Yes

43. D0 YOU GET AL0NG BETTER WITH THE SAME SEX 0R THE OPPOSITE SEX? Either way, I love everyone!

44. D0 Y0U LIKE MUSTARD? No

45. D0 Y0U SLEEP 0N Y0UR SIDE, ST0MACH OR BACK? My side and stomach.

46. D0 Y0U WATCH THE NEWS? Sometimes

47. ONE OF YOUR SCARS, HOW DID YOU GET IT? Four scars on my knees for a stupid attempt at riding a skateboard for the first time down a hill when I was younger. It was not a pretty sight!

48. WH0 WAS THE LAST PERS0N T0 MAKE Y0U MAD? I don't think I want to answer that.

49. D0 YOU HATE ANYB0DY? No.

50. WHAT IS THE LAST THING YOU BOUGHT FOR SOMEONE ELSE? I bought a meal for the car behind me in the drive-through at Arbys. Don't know who they were, just thought it would be cool to do.

Now it's your turn! Have fun!

TICKETS NOW ON SALE!!

The show is coming up really fast! Which makes me glad because soon it will be over. I am excited about it, but I will enjoy the extra time that I will have when it's all over. FAMILY UPDATE COMING SOON! Hope some of you can make it to our show!

Our Last Rehearsal before break!

Here's a little video of our last rehearsal before we hit Christmas break. I am VERY impressed with where we are at in this process. Especially when you consider that only ONE of our cast members has had any formal dance training and experience. I think my cast is AWESOME! They have really come a LONG way! Enjoy the video and tell me what you think!

Christmas Concert Over

Well, the day has finally arrived! Our school Christmas concert is over and went really well last night. My wife and I spent the entire day yesterday at the church getting the stage set and all of the technical things ready for the show. Rehearsals went well and the kids were all excited about it. Then I spent an hour and a half recording all of the light cues for the concert and everything was really looking nice!

At the last minute, I decided to call my Seussical cast and tell them to bring their cast shirts to the concert. We were going to give a little teaser for the musical and perform "Green Eggs and Ham" at the end of the concert. Everyone was a little nervous but they did an awesome job and it really got everyone excited about the full show in February.

The only thing that went REALLY wrong last night happened a half hour before the concert started. WE LOST ALL OF OUR LIGHT CUES FOR THE SHOW!! I couldn't believe it! So our light guy had to run the whole show manually. That was quite frustrating, but God still worked and everything went well.

Now, we have three days of finals next week and then Christmas break will finally be here. I am so ready for a break. I hope this post finds everyone doing well. I was finally able to upgrade to Beta Blogger! Now I am part of the "in" crowd. So have a great day Blogger world!

Christmas is COMING!

I am SOOOOO ready for Christmas break this year. Only a couple more big things to get done at school and then we are off for a quick week-and-a-half break. I am trying not to think about how fast it will go by. We are excited about getting to see "Grammy" and "Papa" St. Clair and all of the rest of the family.

Rennah is very "into" Christmas this year. She loves all of the lights, decorations, music, and basically anything that screams Christmas. It is a lot of fun to watch her light up when we turn on our lights at home, or pass someone's house that is all lit up.

This week, Thursday is our all-school Christmas program. I am ready to get this done. I love our music and the program, but with all of the rehearsals going into the concert, I have to admit it is getting old. But I am excited to see and hear the audience's reaction to the program. I know that it will be uplifting and enjoyable for all who attend.

After that, we have one more week of classes and then three days of finals. In the midst of it all, we continue working on Seussical and getting some final preparation done before we slam full-force into the show in January. Only 71 more days until opening night! AAAAHHHHHHH!


Anyway, I hope everyone is well. Enjoy the pictures below. Leave comments to show your love. Have a great week!

My rising "Seussical" stars! Photos from recent rehearsal.

Thanksgiving Break!

Quick Video

Here's a short video that I put together to promote my DRAMA WINTERIM class that I teach at the school in January. We spend most of the time with the cast of Seussical preparing our music and drama for the show. In the video you will get a quick sneek peak into our rehearsals and some of the choreography. You can also get your first look at my HUGE cast.

Enjoy!

Facebook . . . a WONDER!

So, maybe I am just totally slow and out of touch with technology on the web these days, but I keep discovering amazing communication tools and ways of staying in touch with people that I love. So, here comes the latest.

Facebook.com! I am so excited about this new tool for communication, and it is really quite simple to use. I am pretty sure that most of my readers here do not have a facebook account (since I have not come across any yet), so this may be new to most of you.

If you are like me, you get frustrated with trying upload pictures to a Slide.com or Rockyou.com in order to post pictures on your blog. Plus, you have a limited amount of pictures and sizes that you can upload. Well, probably my favorite thing about facebook, is the fact that you can upload and UNLIMITED amount of photos and in my experience, it is a LOT FASTER! That alone is a great reason to get a facebook.

Also, in the last three days or so that I have had one, I have gotten back in touch with people I haven't seen for years! All the way back to Life Action days! That has been amazing!

Other features:
* You can set the facebook to automatically upload your blogger posts into the facebook for a whole new group of readers and friends to see.
* When you upload photos, you can tag the names of the people in the photos and if they have a facebook (and are in your friend list) they will automatically get those photos as well. So it's a great tool for sharing photos with others.
*You get requests from people you know to be your friend and YOU CHOOSE if they are listed in your friends list or not. ONLY YOUR FRIENDS CAN SEE YOUR PROFILE, PICS, AND POSTS. Plus you can choose for certain friends to only see limited amounts of your profile and so on.
* You can post major events and the INVITE people to those events.
* Your friends can leave comments and such on your "Wall".
* You will be surprised at the friends you may find there that you haven't talked to in years.

Why am I telling you this? Because there are some great friends of mine out there that I would love to see join facebook, so that we can keep in touch even BETTER than a typical blog.

Let me stress that this is not a MYSPACE idea where anyone can see your information and stuff. Nor is there annoying pop-ups and questionable advertizements. The look of your facebook is neat and clean. This is very secure and let's you decide who can see what. I have only been at it for a few days and I have already found 52 friends from every different relm of my life! Life Action, Northland, Crusades, HOST FAMILIES!, and even people I work with around here. I also uploaded, captioned, and tagged over 100 photos in about twenty minutes! That's amazing.

So I can post a lot more pictures of my family and friends there and chances are, there are a lot of pictures you all haven't seen yet. Sign up, add me as your friend, and then enjoy all of the pictures and updates.

So click here to get your own facebook. Oh, did I mention that it is FREE?!!!

Retreats Over!

Well, our final retreat for the year is over and I'M NOT SICK! It's amazing, but God has spared me from my usual state of much sickness and sorrow. Two retreats done and I didn't lose my voice OR get sick! God's grace is amazing!

Now, I gear up for our all school Christmas Concert on December 7. Along with a full month of muscial rehearsals for "Seussical". We are in a crucial time of rehearsals, trying to nail down choreography and music for some of our bigger/full cast songs. Also, we are working on getting costumes made, set design done, and very soon will be starting our orchestra rehearsals with the instrumentalists. Plus, I am driving a huge promotional push with T-shirts, banners, posters, and bumper stickers and decals. So it is a fun stage of production.

In more personal life, Sarah has a doctor's appointment today. We are just seeking advice now from her doctor to make sure that everything is all right healthwise. We really desire to have another child and the waiting time is hard; and we want to do our part to make sure we are both healthy and that there is nothing hindering this process except for the Almighty. Please be praying for us.

Rennah is AMAZING! Whenever I get some time at home, I will post some more pictures of her here so you can see how much she is growing.

We love and pray for you our friends! Keep us updated on your lives as well.

One Down . . . One to Go!

Well, we got back from choir retreat #1. All in all, everything went well. This weekend, we took our entire high school (about 80 students) down to Life Action Retreat and Conference Center (my home stomping grounds) for a couple of days to learn our music for the year. The weather was cold and breezy, but we got a lot accomplished. Our worship time together on Thursday night was awesome and God worked in the hearts of the students through it.

Now, I am gearing up for one more choir retreat this coming weekend. This time out, we are taking our auditioned elementary choir (the Singing Crusaders) to a place called Camp Beechpoint. We will be there Friday and Saturday. You can pray that it goes well.

Good news! I didn't get really sick and lose my voice on our High School Retreat. That usually happens, but this year, God kept me healthy. So that is nice. Especially since we have another big weekend ahead.

Thursday, we teachers are headed to Grand Rapids for our annual teacher convention. No school once again for the kids. They like that a lot.

*****************
I do need to clear up what might be some confusion from my last post. I mentioned that I was "in a state of depression and frustration" without really explaining what was going on. I understand that could have communicated the wrong thing to some of you who are faithful to read this blog. That was simply how I was feeling that particular day and I was really just spilling my feelings. I was only discouraged because a good friend on mine (my accountability partner, in fact) had been going through a rough time and really had no desire or passion for God. And nothing that I could say to him would change his heart. I was at a loss with really no one to talk to about it. Things seem to be getting a little better with him, but that is still a definite prayer need.

Just for clarification, that depression and frustration was not in relationship to my marriage or family. Sarah and I are doing well and loving life and what God is teaching us. Just keep praying for strength in the midst of business.

Thanks for reading. Love you all!

First Snow!

Well, it's official. Cold weather is here! I woke up today to see the first touches of winter on the ground . . . and my first morning of scraping the car windshield. I like the snow today . . . but by tomorrow, I will be tired of it . . .

Maybe not that soon, but I really don't like cold weather. So, why am I living in Michigan? Well, I am still trying to figure that out for myself. Maybe because I love our church and school . . . the people here . . . my friends. Just a few reasons. Although life is not without its ups and downs.

Recently, I have been in a state of depression and frustration. Just because of some things going on around here. Today, I am doing all right . . . though I am still worried about a couple of things. But I know that my God is bigger than any problem, worry, or frustration.

BIG weekend ahead. Actually, 3 big weekends ahead. Tomorrow is Grandparents day at our school, so that means all of my choirs are singing. Then we have two Big Play practices on Friday and Saturday. Next weekend is our High School Choir Retreat, and the following weekend is the Singing Crusader Choir Retreat (Elementary choir). So I will be busy.

If you read these posts, please be in prayer that God will keep me healthy and give me strength for what is ahead. I hope everyone has a great week.

Seussical Video Clip

Here's a clip of the show we will be doing at Calvary this year. The camera work is awful, but the high school cast here is extremely talented. I especially love the closing number of "Green Egs and Ham". We are planning on useing their choreography for our show! Enjoy!

Life for the St. Clairs?

I know, I haven't posted about our life for quite some time. In fact, what you have seen on our blog in recent days IS our life right now. Producing and directing a school musical is absolutely consuming! Both in time, energy, and thought. The show is not until February but in order to pull off such a big production, it is necessary for us to get a jump start on the process. With only a few rehearsals under our belt, the cast is getting fired up about the show and a good foundation has been set for this long journey. I am in charge of basically everything except for choreography and dance. That is left up to my wife and one other person. So, Sarah Dawn is really enjoying getting back into some of her roots with dance. In fact, she has started taking a ballet class again and is really thrilled about that.

In other news, life goes on. Our biggest burden right now is for another child. Sarah and I have been praying for another baby for quite some time now and God has chosen not to bless yet. So we are in the painful stage of waiting. And every month it gets harder for us, especially for Sarah. You guys can pray for us in that area.

We just recently celebrated Sarah's 27th birthday last Saturday. And part of that celebration was taking to family to "The Greatest Show on Earth" Barnum and Bailey Circus. Rennah totally ate up the whole experience! We had such an awesome time. Especially before the show, when they let everyone come down into the rings to meet the performers and the animals. Rennah wasn't sure what to think when a 6,000 pound elephant named Aisa walked into the arena and painted a picture for us! She loved the clowns, which was a comfort for me that they didn't scare her. And she danced and giggled the whole night.

Life goes on. It's OCTOBER already! And school and church ministry keeps us busy. But our hearts are full of Joy in Christ as we continue to serve him and trust him with our lives. Continue to pray for protection from the enemy this year as we are heavily involved in minstry and I know the devil loves to attack.

Thank you all for your support and prayers. I know that many of you read this blog (even if you don't make a comment) and it's encouraging to know that we can keep people updated to pray through the wonder of the blogger world.

Keep CHRIST as the center of your focus. We love you all!

Seussical Cast!

Well, I have gone through the very hard process of play auditions and the casting process. Yesterday, I posted the cast and created quite and excitement around school. Here is a list of the cast for the show this year. Not that any of these names will mean anything to most of you, I just want you to see the large amount of people that I have for the show.

Our Cast!

The Cat In the Hat- Brian Visscher

Horton the Elephant- Chad Adkins

JoJo- Kaleb Beelen

Gertrude McFuzz- Anna Edwards

Mayzie LaBird- Krysta Altvater

Sour Kangaroo- Leah Bartlett

Mayor of Whoville- Paul Hontz

Mayor’s Wife- Abbie Hagger

General Schimtz- Tyler Joldersma

Bird Girls-

Sarah Bartlett

Amelia Ozios

Julie Schultz

Wickersham Brothers-

Julianne Brown

Chevy Gilliam

Jordan Steele

The Grinch- Sean Little

The Whos-

Kallie Baumann

Leah Ebbers

Rachael Ozios

Shanice Taylor

Becky VandenBerg

Judge Yertle the Turtle- Stephen Field

Ensemble/Dancers-

Bethany Folkert

Hannah Hagger

Ashley Joldersma

Rhea Kosten

Lydia NyKamp

Rachel Renzema

Alissa Visscher

That's it! A total of 29 people! Auditions were awesome and we are all so excited to get started on this show. I will be posting a video from auditions soon! Stay tuned!