Concerts & Birthdays

Last night was the Booth Brothers & Hoppers concert. It started at 7:00, and we left around 4 for a 1 1/2 hour trip, planning to eat on the way, which ended up being Wendy's in Dalton. It has been so long since I was at a concert there, that I had to get directions. We got there shorty before 6, and they didn't open the doors til close to 6:30.

I was hoping to buy a Booth Brothers' Christmas CD - mine is in storage, and I cannot find my Christmas CDs, and I was going to put it on my Ipod and pass it on to someone else, but they had had only 4 with them, and had already sold them, so still no Christmas CD.

We sat in the wrong seats until close to the start of the concert. I had asked for aisle seats, and the girl on the phone said all she had was in row "T" against the wall, so we found row T by the wall - a row of 6 seats, and sat there until some people came and said we were in their seats. Oops! Our seats were in one of the middle sections on the aisle, so I was told wrong. They ended up being better seats, and we were still in row "T".



They usually put up the group that has been around the longest, which is the Hoppers, so they took the platform first, and they were great. Highlight songs for me were "I've Come Too Far Too Look Back", "Jerusalem", "Shoutin' Time" - which the Booth Brothers came out and joined them on the last chorus, and their final closing song of the night was "O Holy Night", and what a powerful rendition of that song! Unfortunately, I sat in front of the Hoppers' back-up singers, or a wanna be. :-) He sang along on a lot of their songs, which is annoying. One thing that impressed me about the Hopper women, is they both had on very long dresses. I of course don't like everything about them - I don't understand why women have to change their hair color and pile on the make-up, but overall, they look pretty decent on stage. I wonder if some men would recognize their own wife if they saw her without make-up on. :-)

The Booth Brothers were up last, and also were great. They sang a few songs from their new CD, and some different ones than they sang last time, though they did open with the same song as last concert I saw them at: "Where No One Stands Alone". Highlight songs for me were "I'm Forgiven", "This Love Is Mine", and "Welcome to The Family". The other time I saw them, Michael Booth had some really good things to say about trusting God that made me think, and I walked away much more encouraged than before. He again impressed me with a mini-message, but along a different subject. He asked how our hearts were, how we are sleeping, and talked about God being a just God, about hell, how if we aren't serving God, we need to do so before it is too late, etc. I actually never heard anyone talk quite like that at a concert, and I admire him for doing so.

Tomorrow is my brother-in-law Steve's birthday, so we are celebrating that today. Mom always makes the birthday person whatever they want for their birthday dinner, and whatever kind of cake. He picked roast beef, mashed potatoes, & noodles, and a boston cream pie for dessert. (Why do they call it a pie when it is plainly a cake?!) This practice hit a snag with Paul a few years ago. He wanted pizza for his birthday dinner, and it was Sunday. We always have done a dinner of potatoes, meat, etc for Sunday dinner, and we were horrified at the idea of pizza for Sunday dinner! Pizza is a Saturday night meal, not Sunday dinner! Paul insisted it was his birthday, and that is what he wanted. So we compromised. Mom made him his own personal pizza, and we had our traditional Sunday dinner, and he was happy. :-)