I can’t believe it is has been almost 15 years since Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK.  The bombing killed 168 people, including 19 children.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial opened in April 2000.  While we were in Oklahoma City a while back, we decided to visit the memorial.

From the Gates of Time to the Survivor Tree to the Field of Empty Chairs, the Memorial is full of symbols of the horrible act of terrorism that occurred on April 19, 1995.  The smaller chairs (representing each of the 19 children killed) are especially sad to see.

If you are ever visiting Oklahoma City, I recommend visiting the Memorial.

We were one of the few people at the memorial the day we visited so I was able to get several unobstructed photos.  Here is a slideshow of several of them.

Last weekend, I went to Oklahoma City with Lindsey, Shelby, Hayley, & Kelly.  The reason we went to OKC was to attend Winter Jam 2010 at the Ford Center.  Winter Jam featured mini-concerts by Revive, Sidewalk Prophets, Robert Pierre, Tenth Avenue North, Fireflight, Newsong, Newsboys, and a grand finale by Third Day.  It also featured a message by Tony Nolan.  Admission to the event was $10 and was paid at the door.  I read comments on Twitter & Facebook from the performers and organizers after the show.  From what I can tell, the OKC crowd was the largest crowd to date on the Winter Jam 2010 tour!

Of the musical performers, I have only heard Newsboys in concert before.  I first saw them probably 10-15 years ago when they were here in Springdale at First Baptist.  I saw them in Tulsa my freshman year in college when they were on their Love Liberty Disco tent tour (which featured the rotating drum set).  Tony Nolan spoke back in the fall at FBC Springdale.  Lindsey, Shelby, & I were pretty excited about hearing him again.  Other than the Newsboys & Tony Nolan, getting to finally see Third Day in concert was exciting.

I really enjoyed the event as a whole.  There were a few performances that really stuck out.  I think the song that spoke to me most during the evening was Sidewalk Prophets’ The Words I Would Say.  The following is an acoustic version of the song.

So, as I mentioned, I’d seen Newsboys a couple of times in concert prior to OKC.  It had been a while.  Last year, Michael Tait (formerly of the band DC Talk) replaced Peter Furler as the lead singer of the band.  I hadn’t heard a Tait led song on the radio yet so I was curious (but, yet, skeptical) of how he would sound singing traditional Newsboys hits like Shine and Breakfast.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The Newsboys closed their set with DC Talk’s hit Jesus Freak.  I loved it!  It wasn’t DC Talk but it was a DC Talk song live which I hadn’t heard since I saw them in concert in 7th grade.  I also kind of found it amusing that Kelly & I were the only ones around us it seemed that knew every single word (including the rap-like portion in the middle) of the song.  Here’s a video from the Winter Jam 2010 tour of Newsboys performing Jesus Freak.

Finally…Third Day…Amazing!  Mac Powell is an awesome songwriter and has such a distinctive voice.  Here is an official video of Third Day singing their recent hit Revelation.

All of the performances were almost teasers of full sets by some of the performers like Newsboys & Third Day.  I left the event wanting to look up their tour schedule so I could see a full show by each of them in the near future.  I definitely recommend seeing any of these artists in concert!

I did take a few pictures at Winter Jam.  Check out my slide show.

There’s something about the original that makes me favor it more than the remake but this is still very good.

This is a great interview of Dale Earnhardt Jr by Marty Smith with ESPN.

Junior took quite a wild ride in today’s Nationwide series race.  I’m hoping he’s in Victory Lane tomorrow for the Daytona 500 instead of the infield care center.

I recommend that you all watch the 4 part HBO series called 24/7 Jimmie Johnson: Race to Daytona.

For NASCAR fans, it gives us a glimpse into the psyche of Jimmie Johnson & Chad Knaus.  Until Dale Earnhardt Jr joined Hendrick Motorsports, I viewed Jimmie as an arrogant driver with way too much good luck.  He still has way too much good luck but I must say that after 4 NASCAR Sprint Cup championships in a row, his & Chad’s arrogance was confidence in what they could obviously accomplish.  (They need to get with Junior and pass on at least a bit of a confidence.  I guess that’s for another entry, though.)

For non-NASCAR fans, it gives you a glimpse at the world behind “racing in circles”.  Let me be the first to say that, if all NASCAR was was watching cars go round and round in circles, I’d be bored out of my mind and would not be a fan.  The goings on behind the scenes at the track and off the track are sometimes much more interesting than who is leading the race.  This series is giving a behind the scenes view of Hendrick Motorsports, Jimmie Johnson, & Chad Knaus as they prepare for the Daytona 500 (which is 2 weeks from today!).  Folks try to explain away NASCAR as not being a sport.  Just watching the first episode demonstrated that the drivers & the crew members work out a lot to prepare for the hard work that is driving a car for 3-4 hours during a race and also accomplishing 12 second pit stops.  Not many sports make a team member lose up to 10 pounds a game/race/etc.  That fact has always made me say Wow! when thinking of a driver’s stamina to race.

By the way…I loved the milk & cookies re-enactment with Rick Hendrick!  Rick always has the best stories to tell.

You can watch the series on Tuesdays at 9pm CST and on re-runs.  There are 3 new episodes left.

Here is the website for the show where you can see several clips of the show.