Confetti Cannons and Jesus

I hope all of you had a wonderful Easter!

My Easter Sunday started early(ish).  At 6:52am to be exact.  Not sure why I set my alarm for that time.  Apparently 7:00 wasn't good enough.  didn't measure up.  made too much sense.  meant that I couldn't press snooze.  But the snooze button didn't even matter.  I was too excited to start the day to waste 8 minutes tossing and turning in an in-between-dream-and-awake state.  By 8:15 I was pulling in to the church parking lot and by 9:00 I had music and jelly beans awaiting my worship team kiddos at their practice.

The first Easter par-tay ("service" doesn't seem to do the celebration justice.  It was an all-out par-tay. And yes, it's cooler to pronounce it "tay" than "tea."  Right?) started at 9:30 and the celebration and sugar rushes and confetti cannons just continued from there.  It was amazing.  To see a hundred kids jumping up and down and singing about how their best friend and Savior Jesus is alive was a blessing that I'll never forget.  And the yummy cake was pretty good too.  

After 2 services, I was about dead on my feet.  Normal exhaustion + post-sugar-rush crashing = no bueno. But my sweet Hubs made me lunch (even though he woke up earlier than I did and he had worked at 3 services that morning!) and we got to relax a bit.

Later in the evening, we went out with some family for dinner, then came back to our abode for some pie and coffee.  mmm...french silk pie and fresh strawberry pie... 2 of my favs.  I love them so much that I can't even spell out f-a-v-o-r-i-t-e-s.  It's just favs.  They're that yummy.

So we all crowded in to our miniature-sized home (or at least it feels that small with 8 people in it) and I got to listen the The Hubs' wonderful, hilarious, loud Irish family talk and talk and talk.  They make me smile.  The topics ranged from condo-warming parties to pork chops to booze from the 70's.  Laughter and pie were had by all.

It was a wonderful day.   But ultimately, it wasn't the kids or the confetti cannons or the pie or even the family that made it so wonderful (although that all certainly helped!).  It was what Easter means.  And not just in a historical-factual-earth changing way.  It's what Easter means in my life that made it such a wonderful day for me.

On Easter I celebrate that Jesus died.  He was innocent of any crimes, and yet He died willingly.  Why?  For you.  For me.

On Easter I celebrate that Jesus paid the price for my sins.  Because I believe, when God looks at me, He doesn't see all the horrible and disgusting things that I've done, thought, or felt.  When He looks at me, He sees the innocence of Jesus.

On Easter I celebrate that Jesus is alive.  Like today! He's alive today!  He didn't just die and He didn't just pay the price for all the horrible things I've done.  He came back from the dead with the power to overcome death.  His death, my death, anyone's death- anyone who believes and asks Him.

That is why Easter is so important. That's what made it such a wonderful day.  The kids and the confetti cannons and the pie and the family and Jesus.

I hope that each and every one of you:
             a) had a wonderful Easter
             b) will be able to have some fresh strawberry pie
                  in the near future
          -and-
             c) already know or will come to know the love of
                 Jesus.  (reading the book of Luke in the
                 Bible is a good place to start if you want to
                 learn more!)

Till next time, you beautiful people!

Introduction: The Hubs

Everybody, meet The Hubs:

Everybody, Hubs.  Hubs, everybody.  (That's his 'nice to meet you' smile)

The Hubs is: going to be a great dad someday.

The Hubs is: musical.  

(yep.  he's a rockstar) 

The Hubs is: goofy.

That makes us a good pair.

The Hubs is: ok with me needing to take pictures to commemorate any and all occasions (this picture is of the apartment we lived in together for 4 days)

  

The Hubs is: thick (and curly) haired

The Hubs is: cool.  Just look at the way he rocks the aviators!  I spend so much time just trying to be as cool as he is. 

The Hubs is: tough.

The Hubs is: tattooed.  

The Hubs is: my good luck charm. 

The Hubs is: oh-so-patient.  

He sat still for quite some time while I snapped picture after picture of the clouds reflected in his wedding ring.

The Hubs is: smiley.  

The Hubs is: one heck of a dancer. 

 

The Hubs is: a brother.  

He loves to say that his beautiful (straight-toothed) sister has a "snaggle tooth."  A mere mention of the "snaggle tooth" or even the gesture seen below will start a family discussion filled with laughter.

The Hubs is: wise, a great driver, a hard worker, one of the smartest people I know, hilarious, a servant, and a talker.The Hubs is: the best person I know, my sweetheart, my partner in crime, and the only person who could put up with me as much as he does.

How To Make Your Arms Fall Off

I have an embarrassing moment I need to confess to you all.  It wasn't one of those I-tripped-in-a-skirt-and-everyone-saw-my-undies embarrassing.  It was a wow-how-did-I-ever-earn-a-college-degree-with-such-a-low-IQ embarrassing.

The background of the story:  I work at a church.  Part of my job is leading worship for the kiddos.  Right now, our worship team is practicing music for a service and we're doing one of those dinosaurs of worship music. What are those things called again?  Hers?  Hims?  ...Oh that's right, hymns.  At least that's the way my team comprised mostly of middle schoolers seemed to react when I introduced this song.  They're just not a part of our normal repertoire on this team.

So where do you go to get the music for a hymn?  A hymnal, of course.  And seeing as we don't have our practices in the church sanctuary, I had to haul 15-20 hymnals back and forth throughout our building each week.  Here is the process I would follow:

#1- Walk to the sanctuary
#2- Hope you won't be interrupting anything happening in the sanctuary
#3- Start at the pew nearest to the door
#4- Grab all the hymnals in that row
#5- Re-situate the hymnals in your arms
#6- Try not to drop the hymnals
#7- Go to next row
#8- Repeat steps 4-7 until 15-20 hymnals are stacked in your arms
#9- Make sure you can see over the mountain of hymnals in your hands
#10- Try not to trip going up the stairs to the nearest door
#11- Almost drop all hymnals trying to open the door
#12- Walk (very carefully) to rehearsal space
#13- Set down hymnals on the nearest flat surface
#14- Reattach your arms (they just fell off)
#15- Wander around in a hymnal-induced stupor asking for an arm massage
#16- Repeat the process (mostly in reverse) after practice

After a few weeks of this, it got old.  I mean, it probably got old just reading it.  Thanks for hangin' in there.  The day after last week's rehearsal, I wandered into the work room that's right across the hall from my office, and as I reached to press a button on the copier, my aching muscles screamed at me.

Can you guess what they were yelling?  Something along these lines: "Karyn! You idiot!  You have a hymnal in your office.  And right across the hall is a copier!  Please, please, please, please, PLEASE just take a copy of the sheet so you can take 15 pieces of paper (NOT 15 hymnals) to practice next time!"

So, with a face red enough to match my hair, my dim brain apologized to my aching arms, and we all made up.  And made some copies.

That is my riveting story for the day.   I'm anxiously awaiting my Pulitzer for that one.  And I am happy to report that the copies we used at rehearsal last night did not cause any muscle fatigue.

Any embarrassing stories to share so I don't feel so stupid?

Making this up as I go.

I've always loved to create- whether that be sewing, painting, cooking, taking pictures, acting, or writing- and I've wanted to start a blog for a while now.  Over-analyzing things is a special strength of mine (surely that's not a weakness, is it?) so for a long time, I've agonized over a blog title.  What would it say about me?  About the blog?  What did I want to write about, anyway?  

I would have stayed in this analysis paralysis (oh man, am i funny or what?) if not for the help of my mom.  She listened to me and asked the right mom-ish questions that lead you down the path of answering your own questions. It's almost magical the way moms do that, isn't it?  (Thanks mom!)  I want to write about everything anything that inspires me.  And there are a lot of things that inspire me.  And the things that inspire me usually send me into a daydream.  And do you know what another word for "daydream" is?  Of course you do, you're brilliant, and therefore you know that a reverie is "a state of dreamy meditation or fanciful musing." (thanks, dictionary.com)  Isn't "reverie" such a lovely word? 

So here are some of the things that inspire me, that induce a state of "fanciful musing" (some of the things I'll be writing about):

-Decorating- Someday I'll have a house of my own. Until then, I'll do what I can in a rental.

-Jesus Christ, faith, and religion in general.  My faith is the core of who I am.  To not write about it would be to ignore a central piece of my heart. 

-Cooking- following a recipe is boring.  

-The hubs- isn't he handsome!?

-Reading- I love books. And magazines. And blogs.  Pretty much anything I can read.

-Blowing bubbles

-My puppy- the CUTEST BESTEST dog in the whole wide world: Sawyer

-Music- in just about any form.

-Photography- I know you probably can't tell from these poor, unfocused pictures, but I love taking pictures.  Please be patient with the sometimes-sad quality.  All I have is my iphone and my little point and shoot camera.  A DSLR will come into my life someday...

-Creating- There'll probably be a whole post dedicated to this headboard project.

-Movies- We have a problem.  Too many DVD's and yet we can't stop buying them. At least they're alphabetized.

-Papa John's pepperoni and pineapple pizza- oh the wonders of garlic butter sauce!

-Crafting- Making something usable (and hopefully attractive) out of previously unused objects, love it! 

-The smell of clean laundry

-Anything DIY

-Flowers.  Oh how I love flowers.  Flower print fabrics, flowers in a garden, flowers in a vase, flower jewelry, flower pictures. Any time.  Any way.  Any where.

So that's what I'm planning for this blog.  But I have a feeling it'll take on a life of its own and become whatever it wants to be.  If you're reading this first little blog post, (1) thank you, and (2) I apologize for all the rookie mistakes I'm sure that I'm making.  

Stay tuned as I continue to make this up as I go.