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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8UpaifPbqI

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xheIKyE84J8

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u0P9kwfF4s

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.

2009 was quite a year.  The most important and exciting thing that happened to me this year is that I bought my first home.  I’ve looked and talked and planned for several years.  The pieces all fell into place very quickly at the end of July for me to officially begin my search for a home.  The house I bought was the first one me & the realtor that assisted me looked at together.  Greg (my realtor & Lindsey’s father-in-law) found me the perfect house.

My other major purchase of 2009 was a Nikon D90 camera.  I’ve had fun playing with it this year.  Although, I haven’t ventured far from the automatic settings yet.  One of my goals for 2010 is to learn more about what all my camera can do.

Lindsey, Kelly, Hayley, & I saw the Paisley Party Tour stop in Tulsa in January.  It included Brad Paisley, Dierks Bentley, & Darius Rucker.

My mom’s birthday in January marked the beginning of a very bad ice storm.  I don’t remember ever having weather like that.  The ice was crazy.

In March, Kelly & I went to San Antonio for a few days.  We saw a bit of a history at the Alamo, had dinner on the top of the world, and even visited the beach.

In April, we took our annual trip to Dallas/Fort Worth for some NASCAR.  While down there, we visited the Sixth Floor Museum & Dealey Plaza where JFK was assassinated.  Jeff Gordon finally won a race at Texas Motor Speedway.

Memorial Day weekend I traveled to Charlotte, NC to visit Penni and go to the NASCAR races that weekend.  It was a weekend full of rain but it was a great weekend of visiting old friends and meeting new ones.

In June, I went to a couple of concerts.  The first one was Casting Crowns at the Church at Pinnacle Hills.  The second one was Chuck Wicks at the Poultry Festival.  I got to meet Chuck in person twice (once by accident) that evening.  It was great!  He’s hilarious and very down-to-earth.

Lindsey, Shelby, & I made last minute plans to go to Junction, TX in July to our cousin Lacey’s wedding.  We made Mom come too.  We took our time going down to visit Mom’s brother (our uncle) Mark and also to visit Dublin for some wonderful Dr Pepper.

In the beginning of October, Shelby & I traveled to Dallas.  The University of Arkansas Razorbacks played the Texas A&M Aggies in the new Cowboys Stadium.  Shelby, our uncles Mark & Rod, and I went to the game.  It was an awesome game in an aswesome stadium.  I’m hoping we get to go again next year!

In mid-October, I traveled to Phoenix with a couple others in my department for an SAP conference.  Besides the conference, we took some time to do some sight-seeing.

The last trip I took in 2009 was with Shelby the first weekend of November.  We went back to Dallas/Fort Worth for the NASCAR race.

Here are the blog entries I wrote this year related to my year in review.

January 3, 2009 10:57 pm - The Nikon D90
January 4, 2009 5:54 pm - New Camera – Day 2
January 10, 2009 10:32 pm - New Baby
January 11, 2009 2:38 pm - The Red Coat
January 24, 2009 8:56 am - Tulsa Bound
January 26, 2009 6:40 pm - Family Tradition
January 28, 2009 1:34 pm - Be Still!
January 29, 2009 6:32 pm - Tulsa Time
January 29, 2009 8:27 pm - Ice Storm
February 1, 2009 12:02 pm - Ice Storm Aftermath
March 5, 2009 9:00 am - San Antonio Bound
March 6, 2009 9:25 pm - Where’s Dad When You Need Him?
March 7, 2009 8:31 am - 173 Years Later
March 14, 2009 3:03 pm - Life is like a box of chocolates
March 14, 2009 3:59 pm - A bit of history
March 15, 2009 6:38 pm - The San Antonio Zoo
March 15, 2009 6:57 pm - The Texas Beach
March 15, 2009 8:03 pm - Sea World
March 21, 2009 2:40 pm - Tower of the Americas
March 21, 2009 4:15 pm - San Antonio Re-Cap
April 18, 2009 4:05 pm - Who Dun It?
April 18, 2009 4:45 pm - He finally won
June 20, 2009 3:58 pm - Chuck Wicks Times 3
June 27, 2009 4:47 pm - Casting Crowns
August 9, 2009 4:58 pm - My New House
August 23, 2009 5:42 pm - My New House – Before
October 7, 2009 9:52 pm - Long Wait
November 6, 2009 3:32 pm - Shop a Little, Race a Little

As far as 2010, I don’t really have any plans for any major traveling.  I know we’ll go to both NASCAR races in Texas in April & November.  Other than that, this may be a year that I take it a bit easy as far as traveling goes.  I do need to catch up on here with some blog entries.  I really want to share what my house looks like now that I’ve gotten it painted and decorated.

Hayley is a longtime friend of Lindsey’s (and the daughter of a good friend of my mom’s).  She’s going to be getting married in late June.

Mom & Lindsey decided to host one of Hayley’s bridal showers.  Me, Shelby, and a couple of Hayley’s friends hosted it as well.  This a photo of Hayley & the hostesses (minus Jenna who had to attend another shower and wasn’t able to stay the whole time).

We had a lot of fun hosting the shower.  We decided to get fresh flowers to decorate the house with.  This was the centerpiece.  We went to the Fayetteville Farmer’s Market Saturday morning and got the snapdragons (tall flowers in back) and then actually found the gerbera daisies and spider mums at Sam’s Club.

It was fun incorporating Hayley’s wedding colors – pink & lime green – into the decorations and the food.  Electric green, although it looked pretty yellow on the M&M website, turned out to be the perfect green.

Instead of purchasing a cake or something like that, we used a recipe Pioneer Woman had shared a while back for cupcake bites.  The green “icing” on top wasn’t quite the color green we needed but it did the trick.  We thought they ended up looking pretty cute.

We used a wide variety of dishes to display the food.  My grandmother loaned us the dish above.  It is the pattern of dishes that her mother had.  I think they are very pretty and I’m glad Nana let us borrow it.

Even though it was drizzly outside, I think the shower went really well.  Hayley got several cute gifts, including this Razorback platter.

Here is Hayley with her grandmother and mother.

Here is Mom & Robin (Hayley’s mother).

Here is a slideshow of several of the photos I took before and during the shower.

Lindsey, Hayley, Kelly, & I did a bit of partying Saturday night.  This party didn’t have anything to do with alcohol (the drink), though.  We were in Tulsa, OK for the Paisley Party Tour 2009 featuring Darius Rucker, Dierks Bentley, & Brad Paisley.

Overall, the concert was definitely a great one.  While this didn’t top Garth Brooks or New Kids on the Block, it is definitely high on my list of best concerts ever.

Darius Rucker opened the night.  For those that might not know him, he was the lead singer of the 90′s band Hootie & the Blowfish.  Darius released a country album in 2008 and had a #1 single with the song Don’t Think I Don’t Think About It.  Beyond that song & his Hootie & the Blowfish songs, I didn’t know anything else he sings.  This made me a little skeptical about whether or not I would like his portion of the concert.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  He kept us very entertained and I felt like I knew the songs, even if I didn’t.  He played his #1 hit and a song that I’ve heard several times on the radio since the concert called It Won’t Be Like This for Long.  The audience got a big kick out of a song called Drinkin’ & Dialing from his album.  He closed his set with the Hank Williams Jr hit Family Tradition.  I personally thought this was a good song for him to sing.

“Country music singers have always been a real close family but lately some of my kin folks have disowned a few others and me.  I guess its because I kinda changed my direction.  I guess I went and broke their family tradition.”

That line of the song made me think about Darius.  While I don’t think Hootie & the Blowfish’s music is very different from country music, Darius still made a pretty big leap to where he is now.  Based on his album’s hits so far, I would say that leaped has worked out just fine.

Stay Tuned: Look for two more blog entries – one about Dierks & one about Brad – coming in the next 24 hours or so.  (I’m hoping to get them all posted in the next 2 or 3 hours, actually.)

I’ll be leaving in a little while to meet up with Kelly, Lindsey, & Hayley and head over to Tulsa.

I’m very excited about the concert.  I’ve loved Dierks the previous times I’ve seen him.  I’ve heard Brad has an amazing live show.  Plus, I loved Hootie & the Blowfish so I’m excited to see Darius Rucker in concert.  I’ve heard guest stars have made appearances during this tour.  For example, Allison Kraus made an appearance last weekend when the tour stopped in Little Rock.  A girl at work has decided it is time for Keith Urban to make an appearance and sing Start a Band live.  I’m going with that.  A girl can hope.  Can’t she?

We’ll be heading back to northwest Arkansas in the morning.  Look for a concert recap and plenty of photos (gotta try out the new camera at a concert) in a couple of days.