Am I a Jesus Freak?

"Always be prepared to give an answer 

to everyone who asks you to give 

the reason for the hope that you have." (1 Peter 3:15)

Remember that blog entry I had about my appendicitis? Part of my week-long convalescence was sitting or lying around reading...a LOT. What is interesting to note is WHAT I was reading. The answer to that is the Bible and other religion-related books.

One day while I was reading in my hammock, my best friend came over and saw the Bible and another book "The Bible for Dummies" (trust me, I need it) sitting on the small table I had set up next to the hammock.

He asked me, "Are you turning into a Jesus Freak?"

At the time, my answer was "I decided that the way I was doing things wasn't working, so I thought I'd try this." Six months later, I will amend my answer to "yes, if that's what you want to call it."

Perhaps I should explain myself.

I grew up Catholic. I was baptized, took first communion, begrudgingly did the confession thing, said my Hail Mary's, Our Fathers and Acts of Contrition. Here's the problem: I went through the motions, but I didn't care. There was no connection, no sense of responsibility, no reflection. It was just a bunch of rituals built around a random concept that was WAY to big for me to understand, let alone embrace and live on a daily basis.

I am a Star Wars fan. Most males my age are. The Catholic rituals are so engrained (and so automatic) in me that when someone tells me during a Star Wars-related discussion "May the Force be with you," my natural reaction is to respond "and also with you."

My wife Jenn and I have had some issues with the Catholic church in recent years. She was raised Lutheran and won't convert (and I don't blame her) and we are both divorced and re-married. Without getting into the gory details, this is a HUGE no-no for the Catholic religion. So in order for me to get back in good graces with the Catholic church, I have to attend meetings, get counseling, write to my wife's ex-husband and jump through a bunch of other hoops. I also have to pay something like $300 to the Catholic church before they will accept me back and stop treating my wife poorly...but only if she converts.

So let me lay this out for you: Just before communion, we pray "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed." That's all it takes. I am forgiven and can accept communion free of guilt. But not in the Catholic Church. There, it is "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word (and take my $300) and I shall be healed."

I'm sorry. If it's good enough for God, it should be good enough for Rome.

So in short, I changed my religious affiliation on my Facebook page from "disgruntled Catholic" to Christian. I'm done with organized religion.

Jenn had also taken issue with some things going on at her home church. So we went church shopping for something we could call "our home". For about a month, we attended services at different denominations and non-denominations.

One weekend in May, we were preparing to try out the Nazarene church in our home town. But then my wife went online and visited www.cedarcreek.tv. We watched one of their messages online, and we got curious. So we decided to attend Cedar Creek that weekend, and check out the Nazarene church the next weekend. We still haven't made it there.

(NEW) 60SEC. COMMERCIAL from cedarcreek.tv production on Vimeo.

Jenn was the one who pushed to go to Cedar Creek that weekend. I was skeptical. I had issues about the size. I questioned their intentions (with no real reason for doing so). And above all, I viewed Cedar Creek as a cult. Looking back, I can see how stupid that was. The point of a church is to educate and bring others into belief. The natural effect is growth. There is no other option. The bigger a church is, the healthier it is. We were part of that growth. How dare I presume to cut off membership after I join. How self-centered is that?

I believe that one of the biggest problems facing christianity today is that people do what I had done. They jump to conclusions without any basis for their opinion. Ask them why they believe that the church is a fraud, and they answer "it just is," or "it has to be," or regard the question as foolish to begin with and therefore avoid answering the question altogether. They have no proof except "look at all of the money pouring through there," or "look at the pastor's salary."

I challenge non-believers, to request an annual financial statement. They don't hide it. Just ask for it. Look at where the money goes. Did you know Cedar Creek just gave away $5,000 in turkey dinners? Did you know there is someone constantly going to Honduras to build houses using church money? Did you know that they give cars to single moms for free? Yes, there is a lot of money going through a church that size. But there is a lot of money going out of it.

Jenn and I are taking a class there called the Truth Project. Do you know how much that cost us to attend? We paid less than $5 for that 13-week class, and that was only so we could get the optional workbook. The church easily could have charged us $100 or more to attend this class, but didn't. Everything we spend or give is completely at our discretion. Before they take the free-will offering during the service, they tell visitors not to feel obligated. How awesome is that?!

I'm not saying that people shouldn't have questions. I did. But instead of jumping to baseless conclusions, I did some research, just to see what I found. My biggest question was "is the Bible real?" I mean let's face it: It has some pretty off-the-wall stuff in there: Burning bushes that talk, a woman who had a baby while not being involved in making the baby, a husband who didn't flip out and kill his wife for having a baby that wasn't his. I mean, this is some pretty unheard-of stuff.

My thought process was this: For years, I thought the Bible was just a tool for kings to control the populace. But even if I did have questions, I decided that the overall message of "love thy neighbor" and "dont' sin," (read by me as "don't be stupid") could only help my life, regardless of if it was true or not. So I jumped in, for the second time.

I had originally started reading Bible in 1995. I read Acts, Romans, Genesis and Exodus, and then I just quit reading. I picked it up again this past May, resolving to read at least one chapter per day. I have read about 1/3 of it so far. I read the gospels, and started back at Leviticus and have worked my way forward from there. I will finish the book of Esther before I finish the final draft of this blog.

But as I got farther and farther into it, and got more and more frustrated and bored (yes, bored with the Bible) with all of the "begats" and the laws that are spelled out repeatedly in Numbers, those questions began to nag me more and more. So I went searching for the truth.

I found it in the book "The Case for Christ," by Lee Strobel. In that book, Strobel takes many of the objections to Christianity, including the perceived contradictions found within the Bible itself. He carefully explains those perceived inconsistencies, and uses the support of professors, theologists, forensic scientists, and researchers. Atheists would read a book that claims the Bible is a huge lie and not read anything else. Atheists would point out the contradictions they think they find in the Bible (which actually someone else told them about, but they haven't looked into themselves), and close their argument. Atheists are lazy. They won't take the time to look at the other side of the coin, to see if there is an explanation for the perceived inconsistencies and contradictions. They apply today's standards and today's way of life to what happened 2,000 to 4,000 years ago. They have already decided that the Bible is fake, so they put on their blinders and choose to pretend that no other possibility exists.

Even Christian music has had a major impact on my daily life since May. It started when one of my co-workers gave me a CD by the band MercyMe while I was off for my appendectomy. I liked the music, so I got some more CDs from the library.

Cedar Creek Church has a rock band. Several of them, actually. There is a live band on all three campuses (soon to be four campuses in December) on Saturdays and Sundays. And they play way more than just Christian music. When was the last time you heard Aerosmith's "Dream On" at church? For me, that was a week ago.

One weekend, they played a song called "Mess of Me" by Switchfoot.

Here is the Cedar Creek Band version.

Here is the Switchfoot version.

That got a lot of looks and comments because musically, is a very aggressive and raw song. It's loud, it's fast, and the guitar is crunchy. In a word, it's AWESOME. It fits everything I like about music, and to top it all off, it doesn't use all of the contrived phrases and words that most Christian music uses.

In mid-October, I purchased two CDs: The new Evanescence self-titled CD, and the new Switchfoot CD, Vice Verses. The Evanescence CD is good, but the Switchfoot CD blew my mind.

Now, I listen to mostly Christian music, including Skillet, Kristian Stanfill, Todd Agnew, and Chris Tomlin. I even like Sanctus Real (a band from right up the road in Toledo), even though I can't pronounce their name. There are others, but those are my favorites. Sanctus Real and Switchfoot recently performed in my hometown on different nights, but alas, I didn't get to see them. I wish I had.

I have buried myself in Christian-themed books. If Max Lucado wrote it, I either have read it, or it's on my shelf to be read. His stories are a little elementary, but the spirit and the messages they bring are valid nonetheless.

Some of the books I have read recently that have had the most impact on me were:

Stepping Up: Courageous Manhood
by Dennis Rainey

Not a Fan by Kyle Idleman

The Resolution for Men
by Stephen Kendrick.

The Resolution for Men is a companion book for the movie Courageous. Jenn and I saw that movie about two weeks ago. I have never felt so called out on the carpet before. This is a blatantly religious movie that doesn't masquerade as anything else, and it makes no apologies for what it is. It was made by the creators of Facing the Giants and Fireproof (also a really good movie for strengthening marriages).

I'm not perfect. When I was in college, I hung out with the party crowd. I knew how to play the game, and did all (well....most) of the things college kids are infamous for doing. I attended and graduated from Bluffton College (now Bluffton University), a Mennonite college that was deeply rooted in the Bible. I had friends who were members of Bible studies and a group called B.A.S.I.C. (Brothers and Sisters in Christ). I felt judged because I didn't attend chapel on campus every Sunday (usually because I was too hung over). But all the way through college, I felt I was missing something. I'm not sure if I am made for the "kumbaya sit-around-the-campfire and praise Jesus" scene. Somehow it feels contrived to me. One of these days I'll just have to suck it up and try it. I've been wrong before. That's how I got here!

Ask my wife if I'm perfect. She will collapse with laughter. I'm not. I don't curse like a sailor anymore, but I still drop an F-bomb from time-to-time. I'm still working on (and still failing at) that paying attention to the needs of others piece. I'm a pretty in-your-face kind of guy. Unless you tell me something is wrong, I assume you have everything under control. Are you sick? You had better tell me, because my crystal ball broke and I don't read minds. I need to change that and be more attentive to others. This is one area where I really struggle.

One of my concerns about attending Cedar Creek was that it was so big that it would be hard to make connections and have any sort of meaningful relationships. In hindsight, that was a really absurd concern, since we had no connections or meaningful relationships at our home churches.

So far at Cedar Creek, I:

• Volunteer at the book store on a regular basis.
• Am part of a Life Group Bible study for couples that meets weekly.
• Am currently half-way through The Truth Project, a philosophy class that looks at the truth of the Bible and the lies that society tries to sell us. This is a truly amazing (and free) class.
• Recently attended a men's retreat with 200 other men. That was a spirit-lifting, exciting day. I wasn't ready to end, and I look forward to attending more.
• Attended some Life Support classes (I plan to return, but I taught a parenting class on the same night during the bulk of the sessions, so I had to stop going).

My point in this list is not to brag. Others are much more involved than I, and I don't tithe. We give what we can. My point is that church is what you make of it. If you don't participate, if you don't plug in, if you don't take the initiative to make the connections with others, nobody else will. But even that is probably not completely true. It is hard to walk past somebody at Cedar Creek who won't at least say hi or smile at you.

I am a Christian. I'm not afraid to say it, and I'm not afraid to answer your questions. Am I a Jesus Freak? Maybe. But the word "freak" is so condescending. Simply asking the question passes judgment on another before they even get a chance to answer. If you want to call me a freak, that's your problem. I am not a fan. I am a follower.

Jenn and I agreed about a month after we began attending that if we were still happy after the holiday season, that we would become Missional Members of Cedar Creek Church. I am ready to do it now.

As I said at the beginning, I began studying the Bible and renewing my faith because the way I was living life wasn't working. Since then, life has gotten a little easier. There is still struggle, and there are days that I just want to walk away and ignore the problem until it goes away (it never does). There are still days that "the other shoe" drops over and over and over again. I used to face those challenges alone. I don't know how I did it. Not well, for sure. Now, I have the support of my Life Group, my wife, and God. I don't have to do anything alone anymore.

Even my 3-year-old is excited to go to church. He asks us to go. While we attend the message, he is in the day-care, playing and receiving an age-appropriate message through stories, singing, and puppet shows. Our 8-year-old also studies a message and does projects. Then he climbs the rock wall and plays on the Wii . . . all in church.

I didn't intend to write this to be a sales pitch for Cedar Creek Church. This was supposed to be my statement of faith. But since I ended up writing it during their big advertising campaign and their "big push" to invite others to attend, consider this a formal invite. Come on out. Try it. If I'm a Jesus Freak, so be it. Join me. Join us. If you think I'm just a freak, that is okay too. I'm strong enough to not let that bother me. But at least come out and see for yourself before you pass that judgment.

If you are still not convinced, check out one of their past messages online (I strongly recommend one of the messages from the "Broken" or "Not a Fan" series), or watch a live service from the comfort of your own home. Find service times and locations here. 

And if you have any questions of me, please feel free to contact me or post the question here. If you are respectful, I will answer.

"As for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)

Two artists, two lives, two tragic ends

Amy Winehouse died July 23, 2011, age 27

Jani Lane, lead singer of Warrant, died Aug. 11, 2011, age 47

Winehouse didn't surprise me...it was just a matter of time. That is not a judgment on HOW she died. I defer to the official autopsy report and the still-pending toxicology report. I am simply saying I'm not surprised.

Jani, a guy I started listening to when he was the lead singer of Warrant (and as I pointed out many times before, my first concert...not to mention my first live national act performance ever, as Warrant was the opening band) surprises me.

I am bummed by both.

Winehouse had this sassy screw-the-world attitude in her songs that had these jazzy-soulful undertones that I have never heard before. She had so much potential and I am disappointed that the world will not get to know more of her music. I am hoping for some unreleased tracks to be released, similar to Jim Croce.

Lane had had a huge impact on my life. I remember blaring the completely inappropriate teen anthem Cherry Pie (see video below) while on deliveries with my dad.

As crazy as this sounds, my "Birds and the Bees" talk went like this:

Dad (knocking on door and walking into my room): "Your mom wants me to talk to you about the sex thing. Any questions?"

Me: "Nope."

Dad (walking out and closing the door behind him): "Let me know if you do."

That's the last discussion we had about that exact topic.

Songs like Cherry Pie and bands like Warrant taught me - for better or for worse - about sex. And for this I thank Jani and Company very very much.

The only thought more frightening or depressing is that these things always come in threes. I'm not looking forward to seeing who is next.

Gotta' get a break from the same old, same old

This blog entry feels like blasphemy to me, and it’s only the first sentence.

In a previous blog entry, I told the story about how I came to love the 80s arena rock hair metal band Poison.

When I was in junior high school, somewhere around 1990 or 1991, my friend Mark invited me to go see Kiss and Whitesnake at the Toledo Sports Arena. It was for Kiss’s “Hot in the Shade” album, and Whitesnake’s “Slip of the Tongue” album, I think. I didn’t go. That decision was not because I didn’t want to see a concert and see what all of the excitement was about (I was quite naïve). I chose not to go for two reasons:

1)   Everyone I read about in the rock and roll magazines said their first concert was Kiss, and I didn’t want to be just like everyone else.

2)   I wanted my first concert to be my favorite band, Poison.

So I waited. But I didn’t have to wait long. In 1991, Poison released their “Flesh and Blood” CD, and soon announced a tour with Warrant, who had just released “Cherry Pie.”

Mark and my brother Lance, and I all wanted to go really bad, but we didn’t want our parents to take us. The problem was that Mark and I didn’t have our driver’s license yet. So I called my Uncle Tod and bribed him to take us. We bought his ticket and gave him beer money. Best deal ever. He took us to many concerts under the same arrangement. \m/

 Warrant was AWESOME. I don’t remember much from 20 years ago, but I know that I loved it. I remember watching the guitar players, Joey Allen (my favorite) and Erik Turner playing in perfect harmony… sometimes even the same solos and fills. It was amazing to watch, and our seats kinda’ sucked.

Then Poison came on and blew our minds. For nearly two hours, they pulled out everything. You can find a performance from the tour on their “Swallow This Live” album. While the album itself came under heavy scrutiny due to overdubs and overproduction, it still is an excellent album.

In the years since, we have stuck by Poison through everything, including a drugged-up performance by C.C. Deville, which besides some false starts, unplugging himself, his pink hair, and some missed chords, was a great performance, through the fistfight and breakup that followed, to C.C.’s cocaine-fueled solo career, Poison’s resurgence with a critically-acclaimed CD, “Native Tongue” with an eclectic guitar player who eventually screwed Poison over (not to mention drummer Rikki Rockett’s girlfriend. He was kicked off a bus in a swamp for that stupid trick.

We stuck through uncertainty, and a really long period of inactivity. Without our fix of Poison, Lance and I turned to the Internet to find old live performances, both on DVD and videocassette. We amassed quite the collection of bootleg tapes during that time.

One of my greatest finds was a legitimate copy of Poison’s recorded and produced, yet unreleased album, “Crack a Smile,” with the amazing guitar player Blues Saraceno. It remains one of my favorite albums, which Capital Records finally got smart and released.

Lance’s interest in Poison became so great that he purchased an electric blue Ibanez guitar just like C.C. played on the Flesh and Blood album’s “Road Dogs From Hell” tour.

Credit unknown

Since 1991, Lance and I have seen Poison a total of 16 times, sometimes just the two of us, sometimes with wives, sometimes with our cousin Brooke, or other friends. It has been a wild ride.

We have seen Bret Michaels in concert at least three times, and we have been members of his fan club and met him backstage on numerous occasions. We also saw him perform “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” for the Toledo Mudhens in 2009. I once won tickets to one of his concerts.

My wife Jenn and I have seen the guitar player, C.C. DeVille, live as a solo act twice, playing at bars with their house bands. One of those bars was the Alrosa Villa in Columbus where Dimebag Darrell of Pantera was murdered during a concert. Lance and I got to go onstage with him during that performance. It was awesome.

Me and Bret backstage on the steps of his bus in 2006 (photo by Big John)

(From left) Jenn, me, C.C. Brooke, Kristy and Lance at Alrosa Villa

in 2007.

Sometime in 2009 or 2010, Lance and Kristy got to meet Bobby Dall, Poison’s bass player, backstage, which I understand was completely unintentional.

This year, Lance and his wife Kristy went down to Cincinnati to see Poison and Motley Crue. I have always wanted to see the Crue, but I wasn’t about to pay $150 per ticket to do it, so Jenn and I didn’t go.

Lance and Kristy became members of drummer Rikki Rockett’s fan club, and met him backstage at the Cincinnati show, and again at the Toledo Zoo, which is really what this blog entry is about.

So that’s where we are now in this story. We were disappointed to not get to see him again with Motley Crue. I can count only a few other times since Poison’s 1999 reunion that I haven’t seen them. Once was when they didn’t tour. Another was when they toured with Kiss and Ted Nugent, and again with Def Leppard. In all instances, tickets were more than $100 each. I’m not going to do that.

So when Jenn and I heard that they were playing at the Toledo Zoo, we jumped at the chance. The fact that we were members and had early access to the seats made it even better. The icing on the cake for me, was that Warrant was opening. It was going to be like my very first concert all over again.

So we got tickets. So did Lance and Kristy. We were all in Row Q in chairs in the front section. Cool. They were the best seats that were available, and sales hadn't opened to the general public yet.

And then they did, and Lance and Kristy got bored one night and checked out the sales availability...and proceded to purchase Row C tickets (that's third row, very front), as non-members. It burns my britches that the Toledo Zoo tried to ram their nose into the taxpayer pockets in Wood County when they pull crap like that. I'm glad the Wood County Commissioners told them to take a hike.

Jenn and I stayed in Row C and waited for the concert to arrive.

Warrant live at the Toledo Zoo July 28, 2011 (l-r, Erik Turner,
Jerry Dixon and Steven Sweet) Photo by Kristy Van Vorhis.

On July 28, we arrived just in time to see Warrant start their set. It was FANTASTIC. Jenn would look at me as if I was nuts when my face would melt from the harmonic guitars. Some things never change. Of course, my face also might have been melting because it was so FREAKING HOT that night. Jenn's fingers swelled up so bad that she couldn't even spin her ring finger. I had to sit down at one point because I almost passed out.

Joey Allen of Warrant at Rally by the River,
Toledo, OH, Aug. 6, 2010. Photo by me.

We saw Warrant last year at Rally by the River in Toledo, and that performance was better. They played an hour and a half last year, and only about 40 minutes this year. Last year, I actually complained that it was too loud. I hate myself for getting old. This year, it wasn't too loud, but it was too short. Photos from that show can be seen at https://picasaweb.google.com/gregvanvorhis/
2010_08_06WarrantLiveRallyByTheRiverToledoOH

This blog, "Stronger Now," is actually named after one of Warrant's songs (see my first ever blog entry).

Then Poison came on, and while I am always excited to see "my boys," and will always stand by them, I am sad to report that this was the same concern that I have seen for the last 10 years. I am able to name all of the songs they play, in order, before they play the first chord, and I can tell you pretty much word-for-word, or main idea for main idea, what Bret will say between each of the songs. I can't begin to tell you how many years in a row they have decided to "put Ride the Wind back into the set." It has gotten to the point of being ridiculous. The saving grace for me, I suppose, is watching the people who don't follow them as closely as we do, and haven't realized they have been touring for so long. They still feel the magic.

Go grab Poison's CD "Power to the People," or their CD/DVD combo "Live Raw and Uncut."It is the exact same show. My oldest son and I started talking about music the night after the concert, so I threw in the Live Raw and Uncut DVD to show him some concepts I had explained to him. Jenn walked in, watched a couple of songs and said "Oh my God. This is the exact same show we saw last night." My response was "Take any concert from the last 10 years, copy it, paste it into last night's time slot, and hardly anything has changed."

The biggest question/surprise is what order they play the last two songs in: Will it be "Talk Dirty to Me" followed by "Nothin' but a Good Time," or the more common pattern of "Nothin' but a Good Time followed by "Talk Dirty to Me."

C.C. and Bret performing at the Toledo Zoo.
(Photo by Kristy Van Vorhis)

They always start with the intro to "Valley of Lost Souls," which goes into "Look What the Cat Dragged In," which is always followed by "I Want Action." And every concert, they play "Every Rose" and "Something to Believe In" in their entirety, despite the fact that they are practically the same song musically. They also always play "Your Mama Don't Dance," including Bret's worn-out harmonica intro.

Bret Michaels at the Toledo Zoo. Notice the drum head
spray pained with the word "Toledo." It will show up later.
(Photo by Kristy Van Vorhis) 

Having said that I WILL ADMIT that the live version of "Your Mama Don't Dance" at the Toledo Zoo this year was the best version I have ever heard them do. Bobby took the bass line back to old school Loggins/Messina, Will killed it on the keyboards, they were both turned up loud enough to hear them, and the play between Bret's harmonica and C.C.'s guitar solos had extra life that I hadn't seen in a long time. This was the highlight of my night.

Then Jenn disappeared and started texting me about which shirt I wanted. She insisted on getting me a shirt because my birthday is coming up. After some arguing with myself, I decided to go to a throwback t-shirt showing the "Open Up and Say...Ahh" album cover, which some people find disturbing to the point that it was censored in 1988.

I texted Jenn that I wanted that shirt, and she texted back "REALLY???" I texted back to her "For 20 years, YES!" After the concert, I told her why, and that is the story I will tell next.

This is the shirt Jenn got me.
Photo borrowed from www.fanfire.com

While this is actually a back patch, this is the
design of the shirt Lance stole from me.

Back in 1989, when "Fallen Angel" and "Your Mama Don't Dance" were getting heavy airplay, they censored the "Open Up" album cover. There were still a few t-shirts floating around stores that still showed the full-face cover.

One day when my parents took us to the Woodland Mall in Bowling Green, Lance and I ran into Record Den, and straight to the back to the t-shirt rack at the back of the store. There, I found one t-shirt left with the "Open Up" cover on it. I told my brother that we needed to figure out how to find mom and dad without losing the shirt. He told me to just hang it on the rack, because nobody would take it in such a short time. I hung it up and started to walk out of the store. I turned around and saw Lance had the shirt in his hand, and he proceded to take it up to the clerk and ask him to hold it for him. I about beat him up right there. For some reason I didn't confront him about it in front of mom and dad, so he got it. I have resented him for it ever since then...a little.

If Poison insists on continuing to release
retro shirts, I hope they re-release this design.

But Jenn redeemed me by getting me that shirt for me (she can't look at it). It has the covers of 15 of their album covers on the back of it. That's not all of them, but it is most of them. Out of that 15, eight of them are either "greatest hits," "best-ofs" compilations, or live albums. Their last studio album was completely comprised of cover songs.

So to review, Poison runs the same live show, puts out the same CD with different art work and song order, and has even begun to sell old t-shirt designs as "retro." I sincerely and severely need a fix of Poison that is all new.

But I love them. We will continue to go see them in concert and buy their non-compilation albums.

And Lance and Kristy were cool enough to ask Rikki to sign his solo album cover for us, and it's personalized, so that's really cool, too. I just wish there was more creativity coming from their camp.

Kristy, Rikki and Lance backstage at the Toledo Zoo July 28, 2011.
(Photo probably by some random dude who was next in line, or Rikki's handler)

Lance with his customized bass drum head he
(or Kristy, depending on who you ask)
bought for charity through Rikki's fan club.
(Photo by Kristy Van Vorhis)

Jenn and me with our personalized and signed Rikki Rockett "Glitter 4 Your Soul"
solo CD cover, our Toledo Zoo tickets, and my new retro shirt
that Jenn can't look at, but I love. (Photo by my oldest son)