He just walked right on in.

I am sitting here on my couch with coffee and small puppy (though not quite that small anymore :) ) beside me, and I am an extremely happy camper.

You see, here's the thing, I love being right here.  Ok, I love drinking coffee with the puppy, but more than that, I love writing.  For the last two months or so we were in the barn I had the worst case of writer's block.  I would want to write, but simply had nothing that pulled me into writing.  (That was very strange and frankly awful for me.)

Now we are moved into our first home, and the transformation has been fairly amazing in my life.  I now drive a scant 11 mins and 30 seconds into work instead of 45 minutes on a good day.  HEB, Costco, Freebirds, Five Guys, and Lowe's are all within 5 minutes of the house.  I can see friends any night of the week that we want to without having to drive an hour.  It is so wonderful, such a blessing from the Lord, and my heart is happy here with my small wifey (Who is currently sleeping in the other room still.  She is a super cute sleeper.).  

So lately, I find myself with another sort of conundrum.  I drive to and from work or to run and errand for said small wife, and I keep getting flooded with things to write about.  Good?  Yes, absolutely.  Bad also.  Why?  Because I'm in the car with no "writing" option.  

Summary of this thought: I have got to find a way to record these ideas for future scribbling because Jesus put this writing bug in my heart.  Whether done poorly or well at this point, it is something that I love to do and something that God continues to draw up.

So, without further adue, I have a very firm recommendation for each and every one of you out there who likes good music.

Wes, Sheridan, Jess, and I all went to the Needtobreathe show at House of Blues (great venue btw) the other night expecting to see a great show from them.  Luke Friesen's little bro, Toby, is currently playing keys and a little guitar for them, and they went even harder than we had expected them to.  Expectations surpassed.  Well done, gents, and your heart matches.  Too fun.

What we did not expect:

The Daylights

Opened for NTB.  I was floored.  They were good.  Huge sound for a three piece gig.  

Then all of the sudden they play this song called Weapons (on myspace page).  

I have no explanation for what happened at that point, but all I know is that out of the clear blue I felt God's presence just walk into the room.  It was marked, and it was unmistakable.  (Also rather fantastic.  I mean, how cool is Jesus?  "Yea, sure, let me waltz into this House of Blues bar and show up at a concert that is not branded as 'Christian'.")  For the record, He stayed the rest of the show through NTB. It was so much fun to worship to Something Beautiful with my hands held high.

I know this:  When a band is good, and God's hand is on them like that, they are someone worth getting behind.

Summary of band/concert thoughts: If you trust me or Wesley Charles Whitney at all about bands, buy The Daylights CD on iTunes or Amazon, give it two spins, and you'll be hooked.  Great lyrics and a sound that is plum stuck in my head.

OK, I'm off to my favorite pastime - basketball.  Hope you laughed.

Mr. Hill

SHFP: Like Mother Like Daughters

The very first day I signed up for twitter one my friends from high school, Ellen Reynolds, was the first to interact with me.   In fact it was probably the first interaction we have had since high school! It has been extremely fun to talk to her again.   Through twitter I found out some pretty cool stuff about Ellen like:

Ellen works in Austin for a super cool company called the Dachis Group that specializes in combining social media with business.   The Dachis Group has created a business model that captures and creates value from new movements technology, society, and the emerging market place.   Which basically means they are on the forefront of how businesses will communicate internally and externally.   I just so happen to think that is totally interesting.

Ellen, her mom Nancy, and her sister Robin have a food blog called Like Mother Like Daughters.   It is all about using great ingredients, being healthy, having fun, and all the different views and aspects of food.  Not mention that their blog design is one of my favorites.

Go check them out and give them some love :)

( I may have accidently become facinated by the company Ellen works for while writing this blog, so I just wanted to reiterate the coolness of her food blog in case anyone was confused )

SHFP: In A Nutshell

Apparently it is the week the of the Shameless Hill Family Promotion.   I just have to add one more to the list and it is my friend Shelby Crandall's new blog.   In a Nutshell

I love it.  It is new and fun.   Shelby does a great job blogging about all sorts of wonderful things and introducing you to other wonderful people and products on the interwebs.

Please click over and check her out.   I love having her in my RSS feed :)

SHFP: The Ellis Island

Top of the morning to ya'

It is time for another edition of Shameless Hill Family Promotions ....

Enter cheesy music.

One of my best friends from junior high / high school and her husband Adam are moving to Connecticut. In fact Adam has already moved to Connecticut and Kelley is here finishing out the school year as the most awesome Calculus teacher Cy-Creek has ever seen.

To say that I am heart broken that they are moving does not even cover it.   Chris and I love them both.   Adam even let Chris live with him when we graduated from College and before we got married.   It was awesome because Kelley and I actually got to see each other.

I met Kelley in 6th grade through Angela who was my very first friend in public school.  It just so happened that Angela and Kelley happened to be best friends for life forever in all eternity, so much so that to this day they are both teachers at the same high school.   There are a lot of stories about how all of our friendships evolved over time throughout junior high and high school.  Enough to fill several blogs.   Laura is also one of our really good friends back from the good ole' days, and now after college we are all accountability and prayer partners.   We are also Mexican food, pizza, wine, and shopping partners. :)

The one point I would like to make is that in high school Kelley and I NEVER EVER dated guys in the same group.   This caused a little tension when it came time to hang out with people on the weekend because of our different taste and preferences in boys.    But, when it came time to choose husbands Kelley and I probably could not have picked men more alike.

We both picked 6 foot 5 basketball playing, finance majors, BYX group members, Texas A&M Aggies. We both happened to work at Conoco Phillips right out of college.    Kelley and I are also 5 foot two with brown hair.   We both also have German Short Hair puppies that we love desperately named Jaida and Giada.   Weird?   Maybe ..... I think I am going to stop with the likenesses.   Although I will mention that the four of us also love grass fed beef and really good red wines.

Ok, ok, ok .... Now on to my SHFP:  The Ellis's started blogging and pigs are flying.   They are moving up to the NE where Texans are scarce and so is the BBQ.

Please check out their new blog: The Ellis Island

An Explosion of All Things Pent Up

OH MY GOSH.

Bad things happen when I get too excited.  Things get broken.  I hit things in cars.  Squirrels spontaneously combust.  It is crazy the amount of excitement energy that God has given me the ability to generate.

Frankly, I sometimes wonder if you could power a small city off of my excitement.  It's pretty ridiculous, just ask my wife.


Well, work has been crazy, and we've been out of town nearly every weekend.  (Saturday morning after my quiet time is my favorite time to blog...coffee still flows in abundance, good music on the stereo, the day is still quiet - it basically rocks.)  The business and traveling have greatly limited me from being able to release all of my silly excitement about random things in life via the blog.

I am about to explode in real life from all the fun, random, silly things that I have been wanting to write about for the last month.  I hope you have fun.



1.  The album Trouble by Ray LaMontagne might be the perfect Spring time cd.  Last weekend, I sat on the front porch listening to this cd.  The Sun was still up (God love you, Daylight Savings time!), the breeze was slight, the pond was pretty, Diamond H steaks were on the grill, the wine was a Punto Final Malbec, and my wife was looking particularly beautiful.  One of the best nights of my life, truthfully.


2.  Online Shopping.  I love it.  I can find nearly anything online for less money.  I get to compare prices, service, etc all from the comfort of my Michael Jordan basketball shorts and iTunes library.  Booya.

I love online shopping, but I have also discovered something about myself through it:

I turn into an impatient and emotional two year-old when I have that tracking number.

Seriously.  I will open my email, open the Online Shopping label in my gmail (I told you, I'm sick) and find the tracking email from Eastbay.  I will check the track of my package 3 times a day at least.  "Oh, I know that the package left Indiana yesterday, surely it will be to Texas today, right?"

For my birthday, this was particularly problematic.  I had several things that I wanted to shop online for.  Armed with my bday cash, I went to freaking town.  (BTW, I heartily endorse the following products.  They are all more than SHFP worthy.  Seriously, you should buy them.)  New 320 GB harddrive for my MacBook?  Cheap and Check.  New, RIDICULOUSLY HOTT Nike Basketball shoes?  Wes and Luke Friesen bought the same ones, Check, and triple Check.

I have never acted more completely ridiculously than while waiting for these two packages to arrive.  It was completely absurd.  I have since apologized to my wife.  Yep, it was bad.

Haha.  While repeatedly tracking my Eastbay shipment for my basketball shoes, I see that they have arrived in Conroe on a Saturday.  This is awesome.  This means that the next business day (Monday), I will see those magical words, "OUT FOR DELIVERY".  The next day, I dutifully, triply check my tracking number only to find that they have been passed off to the Post Office for final delivery.  What kind of awful joke is this, UPS???????  The US POST OFFICE?  They stink so bad they can't even make a profit with a monopoly on our mailboxes and you give my prized basketball shoes to them for final delivery?  What in God's name are you thinking???


I had a minor near meltdown, and the shoes showed up on Tuesday.  Like I said, I apologized to my wife for my frantic and completely pathetic emotional state.

Will I change my online shopping ways?  Absolutely not.  Will it likely provide me with more fodder for random blog posts?  Absolutely.

3.  I rear-ended a woman on Belt-way 8 doing 35 miles an hour.  It was awful.  No one was hurt.  Her truck was totaled an mine ends up with cosmetic damage (I guess we can still say something for good ol' GMC, right?).  Not quite sure how that happened, but apparently two car lengths isn't enough space to check your blindspot with how fast Houstonians can slam on their breaks.  Such is life, and this is how we learn our lessons.  Thank God for comprehensive insurance and for keeping everyone safe.

I sat there on the side of the road with my overactive sense of irresponsibility, trying to keep from getting pissed off at myself, and asked the Lord why He let this happen.  I felt Him gently speak to me and let me know that it was ok, and that He wanted to reveal Himself to me as My Provider in a new and deeper way.  I'm excited to see Him do this and thankful for His comforting voice in times like that.  I'll keep you posted on my poor truck, Duke, and the facelift that he's getting.

4.  Costco has changed our lives.  Jess and her mom joined this month, and it is one of the best things ever.  Not only do they sell tons of incredible organic snack food and fruit, but they also sell Lucky Jeans for $37.  Cue awesomeness and go join Costco.



Explosion is over.  I feel better now.  I am off to watch Clash of the Titans with the all the brothers today.  I cannot wait to see it.  You see, I watched the original one time while sick as a middle-schooler.  I thought it was awesome then.  I cannot wait to see the new one with CGI awesomeness.

Also, the first crawfish boil of the year is today at the Jordan's house.  I love crawfish.




I am going to quit blogging now.  Too many exciting things exploding into cyberspace.  I want to stop before this man blows up too.

With (obvious?) excitement,
Mr. Hill

SHFP: William Wilberforce - Author and Statesman

This man has become one of my heroes.  Both a professed follower of Christ and leading politician of his day, William Wilberforce was a driving force behind the abolition of Britain's slave trade.

He wrote and published this book in the late 1700's, and I have found it's words to be equally as potent and applicable today as they must've been more than 200 years ago.  The book that I have quoted below, Wilberforce's A Practical View of Christianity,  has challenged my intellect (as Barbara Tuchman's book did), improved my writing (reading his writing is like playing basketball with Lebron...it's rough, but you get better), encouraged my dreams, and shown me that there truly is nothing new under the Sun when it comes to our fallen nature and struggle towards Jesus.

So, I challenge you to muddle your way through this passage as I have his book.  Keep a tab in your browser set to www.m-w.com and admit that your vocabulary is a little deficient (as I have found myself forced to).  Recognize how material and relevant Wilberforce's words are in 2010 as they were in 1797 - one of my favorite discoveries as I have read the book.

Most of all, I hope that you realize that in the same manner that Wilberforce had a professional calling as a politician but made a tremendous impact on the religious and moral standing of his country through his writing and life - so we can today.

No matter what profession you find yourself called to - engineer, accountant, sales, politics, stay at home mom - I guarantee that you can also have an impact for Christ on the culture around you.  Change for our great nation will not emanate from her government, but from normal men and women like us who are willing to follow Christ in a passionate and surrendered manner.

"There are many shades of difference between those who flatly renounce, and those who cordially embrace the doctrine of Redemption by Christ.  This class has a sort of general, indeterminate, and ill understood dependence on our blessed Savior.  But their hopes so far as they can be distinctly made out (for their views also are very obscure) appear ultimately to bottom on the persuasion that they are now, through Christ, become members of a new dispensation, wherein they will be tried by a more lenient rule than that to which they must have been otherwise subject.  'God will not now be extreme to mark what is done amiss: but will dispense with the rigorous exactions of his law, too strict indeed for such frail creatures as we are to hope that we can fulfill it.  Christianity has moderated the requisitions of Divine Justice; and all which is now required of us, is thankfully to trust o the merits of Christ for the pardon of our sins, and the acceptance of our sincere though imperfect obedience.  The frailties and infirmities to which our nature is liable, or to which our situation in life exposes us, will not be severely judged: as it is the practice that really determines the character, we may rest satisfied, that if on this whole our lives be tolerably good, we shall escape with little or no punishment, and through Jesus Christ our Lord, shall be finally partakers of heavenly felicity.'

"We cannot dive into the human heart, and therefore should always speak with caution and diffidence, when from external appearances or declarations we are affirming the existence of any internal principles and feelings; especially as we are liable to be misled by the ambiguities of language, or by the inaccuracy with which others may express themselves.  But is sometimes not difficult to anyone who is accustomed, if the phase may be allowed, to the anatomy of the human mind, to discern, that generally speaking, the persons who use the above language, rely not so much on the merits of Christ, and on the agency of Divine Grace, as on their own power of fulfilling the moderated requisitions of Divine Justice.  He will hence therefore discover in them a disposition rather to extenuate the malignity of their disease, than to magnify the excellence of the proffered remedy.  He will find them apt to palliate in themselves what they cannot fully justify, to enhance the merit of what they believe to be their good qualities and commendable actions, to set as it were in an account the good against the bad; and if the result be not very unfavorable, they conceive that they shall be entitled to claim the benefits of our Savior's sufferings as a thing of course.

"They have little ideas, so little, that it might almost be affirmed that they have no idea at all, of the importance or difficulty of the duty of what the Scripture calls "submitting ourselves to the righteousness of God" [Romans 10:3]; or of our proneness rather to justify ourselves in his sight, than in the language of imploring penitents to acknowledge ourselves guilty and helpless sinners They have never summoned themselves to this entire and unqualified renunciation of their own merits and their own strength; and therefore they remain strangers to the natural lostness of the human heart, which such a call would have awakened into action, and roused to resistance.  All these, their several errors, naturally result from the mistaken conception entertained of the fundamental principles of Christianity. They consider not that Christianity is a scheme "for justifying the ungodly" [Romans 4:5], by Christ's dying for them "when yet sinners" [Romans 5:6-8], a scheme "for reconciling us to God-when enemies" [Romans 5:10]; and for making the fruits of holiness the effects, not the cause, of our being justified and reconciled; that, in short, it opens freely the door of mercy, to the greatest and vilest of penitent sinners; that obeying the blessed impulse of the grace of God, whereby they had been awakened from the sleep of death, and moved to seek for pardon, they might enter in, and through the regenerating influence of the Holy Spirit might be enabled to bring forth the fruits of Righteousness." (Emphasis the authors)

SHFP: NeedToBreathe

Yes, it's time for more SHFP.

NeedToBreathe has 3 studio albums: Daylight, The Heat, and The Outsiders.

I had written huge post about why I like these guys so much.  I just deleted it all after watching their YouTube videos.  They don't need me.  Here's 3 of my favorites.  Go buy their freaking cds.

Lay Em Down - "make good on a promise, never hurt again..."



Something Beautiful - "In a day dream I couldn't live like this..."



I am Washed by the Water - "Even when the storm comes..."

SHFP - "Christo-centric rap electric"

It's time for some more Shameless Hill Family Promotion.

All through college I heard about this guy, Lecrae, and his boys the 116 Clique.  They were those Christian rappers who some of my friends went crazy about.  I had heard a couple of their songs like "Represent, Get Krunk", and honestly I wasn't that impressed.  Admittedly, I hadn't listened to much of the lyrics, but the music and the main "Represent, Get Krunk" mantra had been kind of goofy to me.

Then Rebel by Lacrae came out.  Then it was Identity Crisis by Tedashi.  I was totally hooked.  These guys brought a crazy good beat and the word all at the same time.  It's like listening to a sermon with the subs in my truck.

Below are the lyrics to the latest song by the Flame and Lecrae (a couple of the 116 Clique boys).  This song is easily as good as any rap song playing on the radio right now, and the lyrics are like reading scripture. I freaking love it.


Mr. Hill - Go hard or go home.


Your boy's been a Christian, quite a few years
Victory and faith, but I failed in my fears
I heard a lot of words that have tickled many ears
That's why I praise God for the Word that we adhere
The Word became flesh, lived for thirty years
Died at 33, but after days reappeared
Jesus Christ anointed one ascended in the air
Or you can say the air where the Father made Him heir
Of all things the throne know it's more than a chair
But after our redemption yes He did take a chair
Greater than the angels name superior to theirs
This is Hebrews Chapter 1 if you cared
I'm leaning to the right
The light is where I'm running
I thought I wanted life, drunk, sexed out and blunted
But all I really wanted was the One who really won it
Fought death, beat it gave His life to the public
I love it!


Angels surrounding His throne and
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
The whole earth is full of His glory
All nations bow to His name
His majesty fills the Heavens
Our hearts give thunderous praise
Declare the Lord is forever
Make a joyful noise in this place


Man I'm trying to lift Him high
Higher than the stars
I am not of this world like I'm from the planet mars
I love to preach Jesus you can read it in my bars
I'm pretty straight forward when I'm speaking bout my Lord
He paid the sin price being beat by Roman guards
But when He resurrected gave us life free of charge
Now me and my boys need to be in the phych ward
Cause we went crazy for God our lives was scarred
Now in the Book of Life, our names have been written down
Find More lyrics at www.sweetslyrics.com
We're casting our crowns before His feet on the ground
It's such a holy melody and a heavenly sound
Hearing holy holy holy coming out of the mouth
Of the four living creatures by His throne all around
Can you picture the scene this this is how it's going down
You just need a little faith and a new set of eyes and a telescopic lens to look in and see God
I love it!


Angels surrounding His throne and
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
The whole earth is full of His glory
All nations bow to His name
His majesty fills the Heavens
Our hearts give thunderous praise
Declare the Lord is forever
Make a joyful noise in this place


One day we gon' be out man, like three strikes
And home son like a homerun CHRIST
IS – KING – LION – LAMB – GOD – MAN – SIN CONQUEROR – GRAVE CONQUEROR – SATAN CONQUERED
Can take a sinner, atheist sinner to God conscience
Can take nothing
Make creation and lives honor
The same God that came through a fetus as Jesus
Limited to breathing
Got believers singing


Angels surrounding His throne and
Worthy is the Lamb who was slain
The whole earth is full of His glory
All nations bow to His name
His majesty fills the Heavens
Our hearts give thunderous praise
Declare the Lord is forever
Make a joyful noise in this place

Purely Chic - SHFP

So this is my first "Shameless Hill Family Promotion"

But my bestie Shaina (who was also my maid of honor in my wedding and also lives in Colorado Springs with her hubby Bobby) is starting a new event planning business. Shaina was my informal event planner for my wedding, and truly during my wedding week she took over and it saved me and my Mom. Seriously - Shaina made my wedding stress free for my family!

I just received the logo that she will be using for her new company and I wanted to show it to you:

Isn't that awesome? I love it and I love Shaina! If you need an event planner for your wedding give me a call or comment and I will hook you up with the Shaina Bear.

Am I dead yet???

So, it's time for another installment of Shameless Hill Family Promotion. (For those of you new comers to our little blog, here's what we mean by SHFP.)

I have to admit...when my little wifey told me that she had ordered the 30 Day Shred Workout video by Jillian Michaels, I was undoubtedly dubious.

I probably thought something like, "A workout DVD...are you kidding me?" Needless to say, I didn't have too many expectataions for the difficulty or long term viability of this little DVD. After all, how hard could some workout video be that only lasted 20 minutes anyway?

...Fast forward to a week ago, as I do the work out video with Jess for the second time, on only level 2 out of 3....

"DEAR, GOD, HOW DOES THIS CRAZY WOMAN EXPECT ME TO DO THAT??? DON'T PASS OUT, DON'T PASS OUT...YOU CAN'T DIE, JESS WOULD NEVER LET YOU LIVE THAT DOWN. KEEP GOING."

Needless to say, I now stand, a little more sore, a little more humble, and very impressed with this cheap and fast workout. Thus, the 30 Day Shred earns the SHFP banner.

Tonight I think we'll see if I can make it the whole way through level 1 without cheating. (It's harder when you have the arms of an albatross and weigh 230 lbs, ok?)

Soon to follow...Chris's new man tires :)

Mr. Hill