My Life as a Novel

Drop Thy still dews of quietness,
Till all our strivings cease.
Take from our souls the strain and stress
And let our ordered lives confess
The beauty of Thy peace.

- Dear Lord and Father of Mankind,
John Greenleaf Whitter (1807-1892)

Labels: Christianity, Self-Discovery

Labels: flowers, home

I have developed this bad habit of taking vacation days one-or-two at the time so that when the summer rolls around and I want to take an actual vacation, I have to scrounge around for vacation time. This past weekend, I took off Friday and Monday so I could have a long, relaxing weekend,. And that's exactly what I had. And the best way to spend relaxation time is with close friends and family.

On Thursday, after work, I packed up and headed out for Hampton. It was Watermelon Festival Weekend. If you are from Hampton, the Watermelon Festival is either (a) The. Best. Thing. Ever. and your entire calendar year rotates around the third week in June or (b) something to be avoided. My husband is of the latter persuasion. My mother in law, the former. Since I'm not from Hampton, I'm just sorta fascinated by it. It's like a big homecoming event for the whole town and the energy is fun and catching.

Every year on Friday night is the Street Dance. This year was no different. A large section of "downtown Hampton" is blocked off, two big stages are brought in and (at least) two bands play from 9PM to 1AM. And people dance. In the street. Except me. I walk around looking for my mother in law. I don't see her, so I leave. :)

Saturday morning was the parade. (Also, breakfast with John and Edith. I must interrupt this train of thought to share that John was so excited about this! He was a little giddy.) Saturday morning was also the morning of debuting new shoes.


Baby Joy's First Birthday Party was Saturday afternoon. She ate cake and I tried, to no avail, to convince her to stuff her face IN the cake. But her cousin, Joey, had no problem doing so. With very little convincing from me, he dove face-first into what was left of Joy's little cake. I took pictures and laughed.


Sunday afternoon, I was back home and it was The Sunday Before Kyle's Birthday. My family celebrates birthdays on Sundays, when we all get together for lunch anyway. On this particular Sunday, we got to use someone's swimming pool for Sunday afternoon, so we went over early and hopped in the pool and spent most of the morning hours there.

Then Monday was Kyle's actual birthday. He had to work. So I slept in. His mom took him out to lunch and his boss gave him the afternoon off. When he got home, I cooked him a nice dinner, and reminded him as often as I could, how awesome Wilco was and that that was his real birthday gift!

Labels: family, Friends, The Hubby

Last night was:

• Late
• Fun
• Far Away
• Amazing
• Worth the drive (and the 2 AM car-sickness!)

Highlights of the show:

• On & On... I didn't really expect to hear this one. It was awesome.
  
• Nels' crazy feet! He was having a good time last night!
  
• About halfway through the show, Jeff said, "You two! Right in front of me! Would you please just get a room? What you're doing is bordering on indecent. I thought it would last through one song, like "your song" or whatever. But it's been every song! (something inaudible to band) We're gonna play another song. (to couple) Want us to play some more slow jams for you?" Hilarious. Apparently they cooled it off because after the next song he said, "Is he gone? Did I run him off? You didn't even know that guy, did you?"
• Kidsmoke ROCKED!!
• Getting to see our friend Ben get his face rocked off by Wilco Live for the first time! He was having a great time!
• Being in the same room with Jeff Tweedy.
• ... and his guitar
  
• ... while he sang

Labels: Music

Seeing this ... inspired me to make that same exact shade appear on walls in my own house. I'm in love with it.

So I did it! Last night, actually.


True love. And I finished the whole room in one night, thanks to the quality coverage of ICI paint!

Labels: family, home

May I please take a moment to brag on my husband and his band, the Patron Saints? They played a show on Saturday night. A show which goes down in history as The Night A Lesser-Known Charleston Band Put Cary Ann Hearst (by way of The Jesse Janes) To Shame.

Labels: Charleston, Music

Last week, we started experiencing some trouble with our air conditioner. I called the A/C repairman. He told us to turn the unit off, that it sounded like we were having some major trouble. And he came by and checked it out on Saturday morning. The report I got from him as I was driving back into town on Sunday afternoon was that we needed to replace the unit. The compressor was about to "throw a rod", the freon lines were leaking and needed welding, and it was more work than was necessary on an old machine.

This was bad news. As you remember, we are in the market for a car. The reason is because the week before last, Kyle's Blazer went kaput.

In the meantime, while I was out of town, Kyle told Clay we were having some A/C difficulties. Clay told Chris Mattingly and Chris called Kyle and said, "I'm coming over to fix your A/C. When's good for you?" Since we didn't exactly know what was wrong with it, Kyle told him we hadn't heard back from the repairman, but we would talk with him at church that night to let him know what we found out.

So after talking with the repairman, I cried a little, and then just sucked it up. And because I could feel the tears ever-present in the backs of my eyes on Sunday night at church, I was probably not my usual self.

And after church, when I started to tell Chris what the repairman had said, I started to cry. Immediately, everyone started to comfort me. Like we were old friends or something. I looked around and some of the people had tears in their eyes - crying with me. And Chris said, "I'd still like to take a look at it, if that's ok."

So he and Jenny followed us home. And after a couple of hours, the A/C was up and running again. Still, I was skeptical. I didn't really believe it had been fixed until I got home from work last night, and the thermostat read 72 degrees! Right where it should be! And when we tried to discuss payment, he wouldn't hear of it. I know people do this kind of thing fairly often - helping people out who are their friends. But honestly, we've known this guy for a month, and he treated us like family.

And what's more?! Handyman Chris thinks that he can fix the Blazer. He's coming over one night this week to have a look at it.

Maybe I'm getting a clearer picture of what The Church is supposed to be because right now they're being that to me. And in the future, we'll do this for the community ... together.

But for right now, I'm going to just be grateful. They've given us such a great gift. And I'm not just talking about air conditioning.

Labels: Friends, Journey Church

At Mendy's shower today, she opened a gift from a lady who is known to give strange gifts. It was a tray with a brightly colored bird and some ... other stuff on it. It was weird.

And Mendy said, "Oh thanks, Mrs. A! Look, mom! It's ... made in Italy."





And Mendy thinks I'm dumb for laughing at that all day. Seriously. All day. My head aches from all the laughter.

Labels: family, Good for a laugh, Wedding

Labels: design, family, Wedding, Work in Progress

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/43413-the-explorers-club-last-kiss-stream

Labels: Music

We want this ...



Or these ... we're not that picky!




for the amount of money we'd spend on this...


You can, of course, see how this would create issues, right?

• "Kyle, I'm surprised that that bench is holding both of you on there. Are you putting all of your weight on it?"
• "My friend told her husband that he dressed gay, but I think he just dresses like Kyle."
• "You know. You're sorta feminine."
• "You look like a Fall Out Boy." [To which he responded with, "What's a fall out boy?"]
  
• "You and Clay are just butt buddies. I understand."
  

Labels: The Hubby

Kyle and I rented the Ben Folds and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra Live in Perth DVD this past weekend. And we can't stop watching it. It's phenomenal! And you should see it too!

Here's a preview.

Labels: movies, Music

I would like to speak with the Powers that be and request that all rainy days be reserved for days when I am sitting in my office all day.

My cell phone was stolen two weeks ago. Despite the $6/month I pay for "insurance" on our phones, the "insurance" company says I have to pay $50 to get a refurbished version of the FREE PHONE that was stolen from me. I've paid $6 a month since September that will "insure" that my phone is replaced when stolen/broken. That's $54 that I've already paid ... on top of $50 they want me to pay again ... for a free phone?

Needless to say, I've removed the "insurance" payment from our plan. What good is "insurance" if it doesn't "insure" anything?

So now I'm looking for a new phone. I started at ebay. This is what I see. My old Free Phone going for $130?? Highway Robbery, I tell ya!