My New Favorite Band

Thank you thank you thank you to Chad Jarnigan of *blogstar for turning me on to Winterhaven.

Amazing stuff here, guys.

I've decided to create a new feature for the site called "Should This Guy Be Punched?" This will occur whenever I come across someone who I think may be in need of a beatdown. I'll post the picture with the question and then ALL of you will respond. (A simple answer in the affirmative or negative will work, but as always, explanations as to your reasons are always welcome.) Here we go for "Should This Guy Be Punched?" #1.

I Had A Dream, I Had an Awesome Dream

Last night, I dreamed that LifePoint Church offered me $105,000 a year to come work there.

However, just as I was ready to say yes, they said they couldn't do it because they had been looking at my tithe records from my previous church.

Odd. (And maybe just a little bit prophetic?)

THANKFUL that the day is over

What we did...

For some crazy reason, our kids had the most ridiculous sleep pattern ever. I know for sure that Finley got up at 11 and at 3am. Then Jonah woke up at 10 til 6. Crazy, y'all.

Kristen and I took turns napping/watching kids so we at least could be relatively coherant for the big day. Kristen cooked, I got kids dressed. (Managed to dress myself, too.) We got to Kristen's grandparents around noon, which is always wild because there are so many people there. We were there until about 2:45, then came home to put a very grumpy Finley Grace down for nap. Jonah watched a little TV, then he and I went outside at 4 for some much needed outside-play time. The best part was raking up a giant pile of leaves for him to jump into. (This is the first time I've raked in about thirteen years.) It was a blast. I got some of it on video - maybe I'll grab a frame or two and post it. Don't have enough to actually edit anything and/or post it. Plus, who has the time for that foolishness.

We ran over to my mom's at 5 and got back at 7. Jonah and Finley were both asleep by 7:30.

Flooring project begins tomorrow. Will try to keep you posted. By the way, the conversation is kicking up over worshipnotes, so please go check it out!

Kristen and I will be attempting to lay laminate flooring in our living room and hallway this weekend. Those of you who know me, know that of the two of us, Kristen is the home-improvement genius. I'm the dude who stands around going,
"You need that hammer yet?"

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Here's What The Schedule Looks Like:

Friday Morning - pull up carpet, make sure floor is clear of debris

Friday Afternoon - Kristen measures boards while Todd tries desperately to operate giant table saw on loan from father while getting the chance to practice all of his expletives.

Friday Night - Still working much later than expected. Fall into bed.

Saturday Morning - Todd and Krist work a little better together and get a flow going.

Saturday Afternoon - Todd is ready to quit and becomes a jerk.

Saturday Night - Todd is being all mopey and begins complaining, "YOU KNOW, I HAVE TO LEAD WORSHIP TOMORROW!"

Late Saturday Night - Kristen collapses into bed while Todd goes to church to make sure everything is ready for Sunday morning.

Sunday - Todd stays gone most of the day doing worship stuff. He and Kristen try not to speak to each other.

Monday Morning - Kristen files for divorce.

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Happy Thanksgiving!

WHO WOULD WIN?

Over the past few weeks, Jonah and I have taken a few minutes to work on some stories. I've been the typist and Jonah has been dictating the storyline, dialogue, etc. to me as I type.

It is will great pleasure that I introduce to you the first offering from Jonah's writing careers. Before sharing the story, here are a few words from the author himself:

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Hi, this is Jonah. It's a pleasure that you can read my story of the past few weeks. If you don't mind, my story's kinda' boring if you think it. If my story's boring, then y'all won't like it. If my story's good, you can like it! I have a robot story and a knight story and a - hold on, let me think - a dinosaur story. Maybe you could write your own story. And that's all.

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JONAH'S ROBOT STORY 10654231
Once upon a time, there were some robots. One was called RobotFlash, one was called Bocapottis, one was called Except, was one called The Last, and one was called Robot Hopping Frog. And that was all.
One day, the boss of them was called RobotKing and he said,
"Go to fight the evil robots called One Day Ago, Evil Sun and Evil Robot."
And then they did what their boss said to. The good robots came and the bad robots came. They battled right now.
The first one to battle was RobotFlash. He fought Evil Sun. RobotFlash had a sword and he cut Evil Sun. Evil Sun went,

"Ah."
The sword went ZAP! Evil Sun tried to punch RobotFlash, but he just kept doing flips and RobotFlash punched Evil Sun and he's down.
Robot Hopping Frog did a flip and punched Evil Robot down.
The Last punched One Day Ago and then he was down.
THE ROBOTS BEAT THE BAD ROBOTS!
RobotKing said, "Very well! The winner is RobotFlash!"
And that was all.

Say It Ain't So

Anybody want to see this? (Besides Clay?)

Spent about 40 minutes on the phone with Ross last night getting info on how the record will happen. I ended the call really excited about Ross, his team and the overall outcome his studio wants to produce.

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Right now, the plan is to get Ross a few (or all) simple demos of the songs I want on the record. Then some time in the next couple of months, we'll meet, play through the songs, talk about arrangements, make notes, etc. Then I'll come home and build some scratch/click tracks that I'll give to the studio. (This is a cool thing, because I'll be able to do that on my own and not have to pay for studio time to do it.)

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The way it's looking right now, we'll probably start the project sometime in February. Ross gave me some guesses as to how long it will take, but that will be largely dependent on whether my singing is junk or not.

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That's the info so far.

Heard this line today on a talk-show:

"And how did you feel after 'the booty call?'"

Priceless.

MONDAY

Took the day off. Even in a normal week, Sundays kick my tail, but the added work of FIND, our big scavenger hunt left me feeling a bit run-down.

I slept late (eight-ish,) played with the kids, watched TV, ran to the bank, bought groceries...did the whole day off thing. Of course, there were like 20 productive things I could have done today, but I opted for some relaxation instead.

One highlight of the day had to be Jonah's request that I fix him peanut-butter and jelly toast with pickles on the side. Not as easy to make as one might think, my friends.

Sent Ross an email tonight pretty much saying, "Let's do this record, my man." I don't actually call Ross King "my man." I don't really call anybody "my man," although it does seem nice. If I call anybody "my man," I don't think it would be Ross King, because - truth be told - I've never met him.

Wait, I take that back. I did meet him a few years ago when he played in Lufkin. Lance walked up to him and said, "Ross, this is the guy who's coordinating the music for Sullivan's Flaw." Ross shook my hand and something nice, I think. (Do you underline plays? I know you underline books and do newspapers in italics, but I can't remember plays. Love to know your thoughts on that one.

Hopefully, I'll hear from Ross in the next couple of days and he'll let me know the process of recording. As some of you know, we've raised about $3000 for the CD, which is nice, but not enough. The plan is to begin working on it while we're raising money. Worst case scenario, I tell Ross I'm out of money and we put the thing on hold until my cash situation is better.

Nonetheless, I'm very excited about this, guys. I think I've got some strong songs to offer and I can only hope there's more and better songs somewhere inside me. I'll keep you guys updated.

In closing, please go check out the worshipnotes blog. (See link to right.) I'm really excited to some worship related dialogue happen.

Oh yeah, my Clear Lake gig at Pineywoods went really good. I've got a great group of guys playing for me and I'm honored to share the stage with them.

Unlocking the White Trash Mind

This is amazing...thanks to Scott Reynolds at www.scottreynolds.typepad.com.

Todd Talks Faith

Okay, by now, we all know what Faith Hill did at the Awards Show. Personally, I think she was joking, but it's still a tacky move.
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Isn't this moment supposed to be about the winner? I mean, if Faith was joking, then that means she was showing out at a time that's supposed to be focused on the winner. She was trying to be the one everybody was focused on. (And the very text of this blog proves that it worked. I'm focused on it, at least.)
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Here's what the "she wasn't joking" crowd hasn't seem to mention. Did she KNOW she wasn't winning? Was it plan B to scream "what?" no matter who won?

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Besides, how does she thinks she's gonna' win after going like fifteen years without a hit. (I'm exaggerating, country music fans...don't get all loud with me in the comment section.) I'm just saying Carrie Underwood's singles have done really well.

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Well, that was a waste of time. But at least I blogged!

Spent all day long in the editing room. Isn't it odd that ministry can sometimes take things that you love doing and then make you sick of them? Just me? Okay, then.

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Since I didn't have time for a real post today, I just thought of a few random things I wanted to throw out there:

1. I think I'm going to start occasionally posting blogs with a "devil's advocate" feel. Essentially, I'll post some position that's completely opposite of what I actually believe. Might be fun to see what happens. The trick will be finding something that's just believe enough to fool all of you into revealing your utter stupidity in the light of my amazing genius!

2. I don't know if any of you have tried to sing along with a Chris Tomlin song lately, but that dude ain't writing congregational worship songs. Unless you attend a church of a bunch of guys and girls that sing Tenor 1. They're good tunes, just so stinkin' high.

3. I think my wife is awesome. Actually, I know she's awesome.

4. I play with 2 fantastic bands - the TWB and the Worship Band at my church. These guys never miss, gang. They are On every single time we play.

5. Krist and I went on a date tonight where I had steak that was WAY too rare. Like, blood, dude.

6.What the heck does "Fall Finale" mean? Is LOST about to go off for another month-and-a-half?
7. Faith Hill is totally kidding.

8. I'm sad Kinky didn't win.

9. Worshipnotes will come back. I promise.

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That's all for me. Thanks for reading!

Some of you may have noticed that my wife commented on my last entry which means that SHE finally has a blog! Yes!

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Now that we can just post comments to each other, we'll never have to actually talk!

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Thank you, blogger.com!

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Check it out!

This Ted Haggard thing is a mess. Don't know how closely you all are follwoing it, but it's pretty disturbing.

MORE VOTING

Who's cooler?

IF YOU'LL LOOK TO YOUR LEFT

Just and update here:

I've added a new section to the blog (left side) for folks who are playing events with me. These members of the TWB will hopefully use this to stay updated on stuff we're doing.

So, if you don't mind...please don't read that section unless you are a paid member of the Todd Wright Band. Thank you.

I Must Have This Shirt

NEED YOUR HELP

As I mentioned earlier, the participants in the songwriting class at the Integrity seminar were given the great gift of an actual contact within the song publishing realm of Integrity's development wing. Wes Tuttle, the instructor, asked for our "3 best songs" and I'm interested to know what your pick would be if were to send this dude a demo.

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Of course there are some other aspects that will go into the selection of the songs. (Mainly being the recent realization that my melodies are crap and I need to get much much better at them.) In addition, I also need to spend some time thinking on what theses songs bring to the church and if my "best 3" are something fresh and encouraging to the body.

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I pulled this list off of my CCLI administrator account. (And listed a few more that I haven't added to CCLI yet)

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Pick three that you think I should send.

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1. Align

2. All The Freed

3. At The Name of Jesus

4. Beautiful

5. For

6. Given To Me

7. Glorify

8. I Am Glad

9. King of Mercy

10. Let It Be

11. Like The Sun

12. Lord of Life

13. My Lips Will Sing

14. Part of Your Story

15. Promised One

16. Search and Know

17. The Cross of Christ

18. You Gave Sight

19. The Wine and the Bread