Category Archives: Storytelling

Musings of a Musician’s Wife: Last Night’s Storm

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Josh and I had a date with Erin and Ian Philpot last night at 8 pm at an outdoor DQ in West Dundee.  It was exhilarating watching the storm roll in with it’s fantastic lighting dance.  We had the dogs with us that that made for a tousle when a couple dogs passed by.  Haley’s initial response was a robust guard dog barking and when we persuaded her into silence she was all eyes alert and fully body quiver.  Sam’s continuous response was his painfully shrill defense barking intermixed with his chimp sounding talking noises.  Meanwhile I’m trying to tackle the largest medium chocolate dipped chocolate ice cream cone.  The shell not only didn’t harden completely but it was oozing chocolate ice cream all down my hand – apparently it was not only too warm out for the ice cream to harden the shell but it was so hot that the shell actually melted a mighty outer layer of ice cream.  So while that is oozing out the cracks in the shell it is also melting at the top where I started to nibble away.  Every time I got a hunk of shell the freed melted outer layer splooshed onto my hands.  I was a mess but it sure was delicious.

An hour and a few minutes later the storm cracked it’s first thunder and sent Haley into a whole new and different wave of full body convulsions.  She made it onto my lap and I comforted her with a vice grip until we all realized that crack was only the beginning and it was probably time to move.  We stood up and, literally, as soon as we did the wind became a violent torrent of dust and intermittent raindrops.  We rushed to the car and I scooped Haley up along the way because she was clearly looking for any means of escape.  Again, literally, as soon as we all threw ourselves into the car the downpour crashed upon us.

The worst of it was the drive home.  I played the role of terrified passenger and spent most of the ride envisioning the ways we very well might get into an accident and severely injure ourselves.  We slid through puddles and around unknowing drivers.  As we neared home my less freaked out fear was that in the last stretch of probably my most terrifying car ride we would crash the only car we had.  (Side note:  our truck was recently diagnosed “totaled” so we are once again a one car family.)  Then I prayed with all my might that God wouldn’t take away our last mode of transportation when home was in sight.

The story ends safely at home with me yanking the rain petrified dogs out of the car, through the pelting rain, and through the front door for a couple episodes of Big Bang Theory with the hubby before bed.

Minnesota Road Trip: one long car ride and onto one lazy day

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It’s funny that I title this “Minnesota Road Trip” because Josh and I take this trip all the time.  But hey, why not make the trip sound like an adventure?

Despite my protests Josh and I were scheduled leave after he got home from a dragster race with KLOVE on Sunday… at 6pm.  I knew this meant driving in mostly darkness and that I am no longer a young whipper-snapper full of excitement when the words “late night” pass through my ear canals. With the assurances that I wouldn’t have to drive a minute if I didn’t feel up to it, I consented.

Three and half hours into the trip, that’s about halfway, Josh couldn’t push on so I dropped my work and took the wheel for the rest of the trip.

Our radio busted within the first couple hours of the trip so I put in some headphones and plugged myself into my iPhone to jam to some sufficient awakening music.  After a couple hours my posture became increasingly droopy and my eyelids were having trouble withstanding their own weight.  I was pondering pulling over for a late night nap when I saw a sign:

“Hudson 10 miles
St. Paul 31 miles”

With those lovely numbers in sight I had a burst of a second wind and got us through the cities.  The next glitch in the trip was a momentary brain lapse that led us a mile off course.  I was pretty unfazed though and kept my spirits up until the next set back.  We were on 55 and it was 2 am and there were signs for a mandatory detour.  To my dismay this detour took us a good 5 – 7 miles off course and I was fuming.  All of a sudden I was bursting with a sort of rage at Josh for not holding up his end of the deal (after all, I wanted to leave in the morning) and for possibly being responsible for breaking the radio, at myself for causing the first detour, and at the immediate vicinity for existing in a way that took me off course and later into the night.  Of course I take it all out on Josh though.  I sometimes wonder if I will ever manage to point my anger in the right direction or, better yet, get rid of any unrighteous anger altogether.

We are here now in Buffalo, Minnesota.  We relaxed yesterday away and are doing the same this morning before an evening of friends and family.

Musings of a Musician’s Wife: a hint to keeping a cooler house when AC is absent

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Some of you faithful readers read my story about living in a home with only three windows that open and no air conditioning.  Well, I finally convinced my husband to buy me a box fan to prop in one of those windows (thank you Jess and Trey for visiting and prompting this purchase!)  To all you wives, moms, college students, or any other category of person that might find themself in a hot sticky summer with out air conditioning here is my solution for you.

  1. Get yourself a box fan… or two.
  2. Prop the fan in a north facing window
  3. Run it on high all day and night
  4. Close the other windows and their blindes during the day, especially the south facing windows
  5. Breath in the cool air and say “ahhhhhhhh that feels good.”

On a side, but very important note, I had a follow up appointment for my breasts today and all I had going on was too much breast tissue partying in the wrong place and too close together. They have since disbursed and I am just fine.

Citizen Way: we had a single released today

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Last night we did not sleep well.  Just when I have the lights out and I’m snuggled in and just about drifted off to wonderful dreamy land my eyelids start glowing a bluish white.  I pop them open and find Josh working on creating a Facebook post for their single release today.

At 5 am I wake up to yet another bluish white haze interfering with my black eyelids.  I pop them open to find Josh sitting at my desk on the laptop again.  And now that I mention it, I’m not sure what he was doing that time.

At 8:30 am I wake up and stroll out to the kitchen for some peanut butter toast and coffee when I discover, from Josh, that so many encouraging friends have already added the song into their collection.

30 minutes later he states they are at the 40 something place on the iTunes Christian charts.

30 minutes later he states they are at the 30 something place on the iTunes Christian charts.

30 minutes later he states they are crossing the 30 threshold.

30 minutes later he states they are officially across the 30 threshold and I ask if he will get anything else done today.  He said he might not.

30 minutes ago he got home from teaching some guitar lessons and I find out they are teetering on spot 26, competing with Jamie Grace’s “Hold Me.”

This is what marked the progress in our day today.  And now he’s making us some banana bread.

Musings of a Musician’s Wife: the good and the not so good of wedding photography

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Image

As a wedding photographer I come across a great variety of weddings from the fancy over-the-top sort to the handmade and on the farm type.  Being that weddings have consumed my attention this month I have had them on my mind a lot.  These weddings become a part of my life for a while because of all the emotions I see throughout the day and because of the emotionally charged atmosphere I take on some emotions myself.  More specifically, I particularly remember the best moments of the day… and the not so good.

The not so good

Divorce is bad.  But it becomes painfully obvious at a wedding as I arrange and rearrange families for various additions and subtractions of people to satisfy everyone’s ideal wedding portrait.  I love making everyone’s dreams come true, but there is always something sad to me when the rearranging is not so the bride and groom can have treasured pictures with the whole family and any individual members they want but to get all the broken sections of family.

Guest paparazzi.  All the point and shoot cameras brought into a wedding become my battle grounds for getting pictures of the bride and groom.  My deepest wish is to have a wedding with no other cameras but my own so I don’t have to compete for attention and don’t have to fight against other people’s flashes and cameras hanging out in the middle of my perfect point of view.

The hand.  This happens most at receptions, some more, some less, but the hand to the camera… please do not do it.  All I can think in moments like that is “but I am doing this for the bride and groom.”

An angry bride.  It’s just scary.

The good

Wedding sermons.  I love wedding sermons.  They never get old to me and it is always a wonderful reminder for me to refocus my attention on the things that matter in my own marriage.

The bride’s grand entrance.  To this day I am on the verge of tears every time a bride walks down an aisle, especially if the groom is crying.  There is something about that moment that stirs up all the good there is to be had in the world and plops it right in front of me.  Nothing else matters in that still moment but the bride and groom locking eyes and everyone else believing in love, even if just for a moment.

Worship.  Josh and I didn’t have worship at our ceremony, but if I were to do it all over again I totally would.  During worship at the ceremony I find myself on the verge of tears yet another time.  If the moments the bride spends walking down the aisle are beautiful, the moments she and her man spend worshipping together on their wedding day are beyond magnificent – highlighting God during the day that marks one of the biggest commitments.

Physical transformation.  I love getting to watch all the women in the bridal party go from bed head and wrinkly comfy, clothes to glamorous princesses.  Sometimes when I later connect with various members I’m confused when I see them dressed in their street clothes as I catalogue them in my brain as the princess I last saw them as.

Perhaps I will add more to this collection over time but, for now, these are the few that have been running laps in my brain.