Ancient Truth | Modern Sound

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
For the past 20 years Kim and I have sent out a Christmas Letter, which we always called the XPmas Letter. In 2007 we were not able to get it done in time. We tried a couple of times, but suddenly Christmas had come and gone with no letter. So, happy New Year, happy Valentines Day, and well … almost Easter!
Every year seems to pass more quickly than the year before, and I believe this is actually mathematically quantifiable (but then again, I wouldn’t trust me with math). Look at it this way; when we were one year old a year was 100% of our life, by the time we were ten years old a year was merely 10% of our life and when we are 50 (in the not too distant future) a year will be a meager 2% of our total life. It is this wider perspective that makes each year seem to be a smaller amount of time. I’m not sure if that is encouraging or depressing.

OVERVIEW
Are any of you still reading after that last bit of nonsense? Good, I thought I might have lost some of you at “mathematically quantifiable.” 2007 was a pretty awesome year for the Houston Hart clan.
We had lived in the same little barrio house since 1997, and we had been trying to sell it for about a year. We were hoping to buy a house in the Katy area where our church, CrossPoint (the one where Frank works) is located. It was becoming more and more difficult to sell our house because of some new neighbors that had moved in next door. They trashed the place, parked wrecked cars in the front yard, raised roosters and chickens and dogs in the backyard, and felt compelled to hang out in the front of their house and share their music with us. Did you know that roosters don’t actually wait for the sunrise to begin crowing? They actually start sometime around 4:30 AM and continue until about 11 AM. That’s when the dogs start barking. As nice as it sounds, we were not too crushed when our house finally sold in May.
We didn’t want to even begin looking for a new house until we sold the old house, so in May we found ourselves in the strange position of being houseless. We had to move out of our old house before we had a new place to move into. We moved into the garage apartment of our good friends Bill and Julie Woolsey (our Pastor and Frank’s boss) where we stayed until we found a house and were able to move in. We were in their one room garage apartment for about 6 weeks. (It was extremely generous of them to allow us to stay there. With their beautiful pool and backyard garden area, it was like staying at a resort. Angel and Von are wondering if we will stay there again next Summer.)
We were determined not to be picky about the house we bought in Katy, and tried to buy the first house we looked at. We just wanted to move quickly. Then we tried to buy the second house we looked at. We offered what they were asking and asked for no special considerations. It was the strangest thing. We had pre-approved financing, we wanted to give them what they were asking, and yet we couldn’t get either of them to sign the contract and let us buy the house. So, we went looking for a third choice.
The house we finally bought had only been on the market for 2 days when we looked at it. An Indian family was selling the house they had lived in for twenty years because they needed a 5th bedroom. The house was all decked out and decorated, as only an Indian family would do. The sweet smell of curry hung thick in the air. We had not seen the entire house before we said we would take it. They were going to repaint the house to make it “sellable, bland, and neutral” the very next day. We loved it just the way it was (and is). They still repainted the outside (from pink to grey) and repaired a few things. We think it was a tremendous blessing from God that things worked out the ways they did. We love our house, and (amazingly) it was not even on the market when we tried to buy the first two houses. Interesting side note, the second house that we tried to buy finally signed a contract and agreed to sell to us the same day that we bought our new home. We moved into our new house in the middle of June. We had a massive amount of help from friends moving in, and we are forever grateful. If we took the space to list the people who not only helped up get our old house ready to sell (paint, landscaping, repairs, packing) but also moved our stuff into storage, gave us a place to store our stuff, and then helped us prepare the new house, move into the new house and unpack … it would be like one of those chapters in the Old Testament that is just a list of names. I mean the names would be easier to pronounce, and it is probably a bigger deal to get your name mentioned in the Bible than in the Hart’s yearly letter anyway. There were so many people that it is humbling and honoring to think about it.

OUR HOUSE
If you don’t mind, we would like to tell you some of the things that we love about our new house. Please understand, we are not bragging, we are just very thankful and excited. It is a two-story house, the front living area uses both stories to create a cathedral ceiling, the upstairs hallway overlooks the front living area and one of the upstairs bedrooms also overlooks the front living area. Three quarters of the downstairs is ceramic tile flooring, and the back living area (which we use as a very cozy media room) has a berber carpeting (which is also on the stairs and upstairs floors). The house has a very open feel, which makes it seem much larger than it actually is. The downstairs bedroom has become the music studio, and since it shares a wall with the garage, we will be able to expand the studio by going through the wall and taking some of the garage as a recording room. This will leave plenty of the garage for a storage and workshop area. The backyard has a full privacy fence with a gate that leads to almost anything you could desire (see the blog on Narnia) Seriously, all of these and many other things are within one block, while at the same time we are pretty much isolated from them. It’s amazing. We have a covered back patio (with our ping pong table prominently featured), three full bathrooms (one downstairs and two upstairs), upstairs utility room, several trees in the yard, fireplace, huge dinning room (with a table that seats 12!), a nice kitchen, Three upstairs bedrooms, plenty of closets, an attic, a new AC system, a neighborhood park with swimming pool across the street, and we are the corner house in a cul-de-sac (so no fast traffic in the street), and on and on. We love our house.

ANGEL HART
Angel is our son. He turned 5 in August and his big birthday gift was a Nintendo DS and a visit from Spider-Man (OK, Angel knew it was Thadd, but it was still cool). He has since become an avid video gamer. He started with Mario Kart and Super Mario and cannot get enough. For Christmas our family got a PlayStation 3, and the high point of every day for Angel is sitting in the media room playing video games with Dad (MotorStorm, Lego’s Star Wars, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, or Sonic the Hedgehog). Dad holds his own and helps figure out puzzles, but Angel is quite a bit more nimble with the controls. He is in a class called “Year to Grow” at CrossPoint Christian Preschool and is one of 7 boys and one girl in his class. He is doing well in school, although he is showing signs of being a bit of a non-conformist (I don’t know who he would get that from). He is a happy, outgoing, funny kid. He thinks the words “Baby” and “Diaper” are intrinsically funny and adds them to any conversation to try and get a laugh. He will often ask the questions “Why don’t you just punch me in the face?” and “How old are you?” Not because he actually wants an answer, but because he thinks they sound funny. Favorite food: plain quesadilla, favorite drink: vanilla frappuccino.

VON BEHR HART
Von is our daughter. She turned 7 in September and also received a Nintendo DS as her main Birthday gift. She has almost no interest in Mario, but spends hours playing NintenDog (a game where you raise puppies, teach them tricks, and enter dog shows). She will often sit and watch Angel and Dad play MotorStorm, Sonic, Marvel and Lego’s Star Wars, but she doesn’t always want to play. She likes to help solve the puzzles and often has good ideas, but seems to be intimidated by how easy the controls come to Angel. Von is still the friendliest, most outgoing person you are likely to meet. We have noticed that she enjoys performing for others (again … don’t know where that comes from) and can really come alive on stage in front of people. We were shocked when she got up on stage with Dad during the VBS concert and confidently sang along while pretending to play her guitar. Mom had been trying to teach Von the songs, and was pretty sure that Von hadn’t paid any attention. Von loves Spongebob. It’s almost unreasonable how much Von loves Spongebob. Her pet rat (Doh Doh) died in January. He was a good pet and we were sad to see him go. Von was really cool about it. She didn’t cry, she just came downstairs and said, “I think Doh Doh is dead.” Then later she said, “I’m sad, but he had a good life and lived a long time for a rat.” Von loves to make things, create things, make up songs, make up stories, draw pictures, tape two pieces of trash together and call it a robot fish (or whatever). And then she likes to give them to you. Favorite food: Crabby Patties (hamburgers), favorite drink: Double chocolate chip frappuccino.

KIM HART
Kim still works as a High School teacher for Aldine I.S.D. We traded commutes, and now she is the one who drives 30 miles each way across Houston traffic. Thankfully, there is another teacher who works at Aldine and lives in Katy, so they carpool and take the HOV lane (which is a lifesaver). Kim still loves her job teaching accounting, business applications and bookkeeping. Kim has enjoyed good health for most of the last year and we are thankful, we are also hopeful that the UC will continue to stay under control. In the last year Kim has been particularly fond of 30 Rock, Heroes, House and LOST. It is not easy to find a really good Chinese restaurant, but the Green Garden (in our backyard) makes some really good garlic chicken … Kim’s favorite food. Favorite drink: Green Tea.

FRANK HART
Frank is still Worship Leader at CrossPoint Community Church, a position that he continues to enjoy very much. This year he also produced an album for the Salvation Army Harbor Light Choir, which was a tremendous blessing. He has been able to upgrade his studio gear and hopes to finish several new projects in 2008. Life is very full between church, music projects, family and friends. Favorite food: Chicken Tikka Masala, favorite drink: Dogfish Head 60.

FAVORITES
The house, Frank’s birthday visit with Jeff and Cherish, everything in our “backyard,” Focusrite Liquid Mix, Black Christmas Tree, Mac G5, ping pong table, Thanksgiving visit with Mom, Dad, Connie and Randy, Mach 2, Dishwasher, Upside Down Show, David Gilmour Live at the Royal Albert Hall, washer and dryer, Carnivale, PS3, MotorStorm, Remote control Dinosaur, Summer visit in Illinois and playing with Jeff and Gabe at Springfield UMC, worship conference at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, Tom Tom GPS, Gary and Beth in the rain, Battlestar Galactica, Clem and GramMichele’s visit, Alamo Drafthouse Theater, Anoushka Shankar “Rise,” new black iPod (gift from church friends), Elliot Augustine Birsinger, Kim’s Classroom size and organization, Motorola Q, cheetahs and cheetah stuff, HOV lane, CrossPoint Maze, Transformers, Kemper Crabb Christmas concerts, children putting lotion on Kim’s feet, HEB.

REQUESTS
When you think of us throughout the year please pray for us. Here are a few ideas to keep at the top of your list: We want to raise our kids knowing who Jesus is and serving Him, we want them to be healthy, and we want to do what God wants us to do as parents in raising them. We want God to bless CrossPoint Church and our ministry there. We want God to bless FeverDream Records and do great and interesting things though it. Kim will always appreciate your prayers for her as she teaches high school students. Kim and I had our children rather late in life, so we pray that we can stay healthy and hang around long enough to be part of Angel and Von Behr’s adult life and their children’s. Thank you to the people who have been praying for Kim’s Ulcerative Colitis, it’s getting better. AMEN

CLOSING
God has blessed us with many wonderful friends and family, and we hope to see you at some point in the next year, but at the very least let’s keep in touch. We want to know what’s going on with you, too. Love.