Let The Renovations Begin!

Our church recently began a huge undertaking: they are going to "remodel" the sanctuary, and various other parts of the church that so desperately need work. The church itself is incredibly old, and hasn't been remodeled in over 20 years. A whole design team was put together and came up with this as the final look and feel for the new sanctuary:

Not bad eh? By the way, yes that is me up on the stage on the right playing bass.

Evan has taken the liberty of documenting this task. He is trying to take pictures each day of the progress of the renovations. Only 7 days into the year, and this is how far we've come:



It will be exciting to see how it will unfold and how much better it is going to look in just a few short months. We are hoping to have this done by Easter. The thing that I am most excited about is the renovation of what I call Command Central. This is the area in the back section of the balcony where the technology stuff resides. This is where we keep the computer that runs the projector screens, the sound board, the mixers, everything. They are going to remodel this area so it is more spacious and so we can actually have a desk/table for the computer instead of our laps.

Greater things have yet to come!!!

Can't Believe it's 2009

I trust that all of you had a safe and happy New Year. I know we did. We had a "party" over at our friend Karl's house. The reason I say "party" is because there were only 4 of us there. Not including our friend Laura's 7-year-old son who insisted on staying up 'til midnight. I did make some food: spinach dip with pumpernickel bread, shrimp cocktail with homemade cocktail sauce, chips with salsa and cheese, and some taquitos (which didn't end up getting cooked anyway).
We played Trivial Pursuit 80's edition most of the evening because we forgot how long the game takes. As you can see on Karl's face.

After the game was over, we sat around and talked until it was almost time for the ball to drop. This was an interesting experience because Karl does not have TV. We found a live streaming video online of Time's Square and watched the ball drop on the internet. When midnight finally came, we heard some clamor out on the deck. We looked outside to see this banging pots and pans on the deck:

It turned out to be our friend John Bosse who showed up only minutes earlier to surprise us at midnight. We were surprised all right!
After that, we settled in the living room and played this game where the person who is "it" is given a word or phrase to say. That person is then asked questions by the other players and the person can only answer using that word or phrase. The trick is, the person who is it is not allowed to laugh. So, the other players are trying to ask questions to make that player laugh. Whoever makes him/her laugh is then it. For example, Evan was given the word "Touchdown!" and he had to raise his arms like signaling a touchdown. We then had to ask him questions to try and make him laugh.


We called it quits around 2am. All in all, it was a very fun evening. 2008 is gone, 2009 is here. What will 2009 be the year of? We shall wait and see.

There It Is...Excalibur

Ok, not really. But isn't it beautiful?? I named it Red Ryder - after the Red Ryder BB Gun from "A Christmas Story." I absolutely love this thing. It plays so beautifully and it is just so pretty. I look forward to rocking out on it, either at church or elsewhere.

Pardon all the weird stuff in the picture - our house is pretty cluttered and I couldn't find a spot of bare wall to take the picture.

Happy Birthday Mom and Aunt Gail!!!

Today is a very momentous occasion. My mother turns 50!!! That's right, 50, the golden year. She is officially over-the-hill. But yet, you would not believe it if you saw her! Most people don't believe that she has a 25 year old daughter who has been married for 3 years. Which brings me to my next point, this is the ONLY year that I am half of my mother's age. She is 50 and I am 25. Isn't that cool?
Here's a pic of my lovely mommy holding up a bracelet that Frank got her.


Today is also my Aunt Gail's birthday. Now, she is not my real aunt, she is actually just a good friend of our family. She is also my mom's godmother. I'm not really sure how old she is, but she doesn't look a day over 60! In this picture, Aunt Gail is on the left, her daughter Dawn in the middle, and Aunt Gail's husband Uncle Walt on the far right, who passed away earlier this year. I give Aunt Gail a lot of credit because this was the first holiday season without her husband, and it sounds like she is doing very well.


Love you both so much!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

And Just Like That, Christmas is Over

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas yesterday. I know I did.
We opened presents in the morning when we finally managed to straggle down the stairs. Evan played Santa handing out the gifts one by one. We opened all our gifts within about 15 minutes, and then it was over....sort of.

I devised a clever scavenger hunt for Evan to go on for his presents. I sent him all over the house, and even out to my car to retrieve his gifts. He thought it was silly, but I'm sure he had fun.
Now, we were all done opening gifts, and I was feeling a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, I loved all the gifts I got and was extremely thankful. But you see, I had asked for a new bass guitar. That was the one thing that was not under the tree. I wasn't too disappointed because I understand that is an expensive gift, and it may not be feasible this Christmas. So, I made peace with it.
Then, all of a sudden, Evan comes out of the spare room with another gift, shaped remarkably like a bass guitar! It was a total Red Rider BB Gun moment. I even cried a little. I opened it up, and sure enough, there was my shiny new bass. It is a red wine color and it is a Fender Jazz Bass. So nice. Just what I asked for. It was perfect.

Evan and I went over to visit Grandpa W. and Aunt Mel, and chatted for a while. That was nice. He was really happy to see us. Then I came home, cooked a splendid ham dinner and pumpkin pie for dessert. It was a nice quiet Christmas. We even got a brief, but nice visit from Uncle Brian and Aunt Debbie.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Christmas Day is Almost Here

Usually, around the holidays, I find myself feeling very sad. Last year, I was actually deeply depressed due to some bad seasonal affective disorder. This year, I feel like I am ok. I am feeling a little disappointed, but overall, pretty good.

The reason I usually feel sad is because the true meaning of Christmas has gotten so lost over the years, that no one really knows what we are celebrating anymore. Lately, it seems that we are celebrating the willingness to kill other people just to get your Christmas shopping done. The commercialism of Christmas has gotten so bad. It's starting to butt it's head into Halloween for goodness sake! It has also gotten to the point where you can't even wish anyone a Merry Christmas anymore because God forbid you "offend" someone. You have to be PC and say Happy Holidays. Bah humbug.

The real reason for Christmas is to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. This helpless little baby, who can't even talk is born to a couple who are poor and giving birth to their child in a stable. This helpless baby will one day grow up to be the greatest man who ever lived, and will die on the cross to save the sins of the world.
Now, this is Jesus we're talking about here. He could have been born in a palace, on a warm day in a warm bed, to a rich couple who would raise him like a prince. He could have chosen ANYONE to give birth to him. But no. He chose sweet, innocent Mary. Her being a virgin made his birth that much more miraculous. He didn't choose to be born with pomp and circumstance, but humbly and quietly in a manger. Sure, people knew he was being born and traveled miles and miles to come see him. But that night, Jesus was born so that one day, you and I could come to know him as our personal Lord and Savior.

That is why we celebrate Christmas. To quote Linus from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special (or more realistically, Luke 2:8-14):
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."

10 Things....

10 Things I Love About Christmas:
(In no particular order)

1. Celebrating the birth of my Lord and Savior
2. Getting pleasantly surprised by presents I didn't ask for
3. Being with my family
4. Snuggling with Evan after all the presents are unwrapped
5. Cooking an awesome meal
6. Watching Christmas specials (The Grinch, Rudolph, Frosty, etc.)
7. Singing Christmas carols
8. Watching "A Christmas Story" for the millionth time
9. COOKIES!
10. The joy of seeing other people open the gifts you got them

10 Things I Hate About Christmas:
(In no particular order)

1. The commercialization of everything
2. The fact that Christmas starts showing up before Halloween now
3. People willing to kill each other over a Christmas gift or a spot in the checkout line
4. Santa Clause
5. Feeling fat after just eating that awesome meal
6. Wrapping gifts
7. Faking a smile after you just received a hideous gift
8. Shopping
9. When Christmas is in the middle of the week (guess there's not much I can do about that though)
10. Seasonal affective disorder