Let the Music Begin!!

This lovely picture is brought to you courtesy of my co-worker MJ!! A few months ago our piano turned sour on one note. I had the tuner out and he fixed it, but didn't guarantee that he had permanently fixed that note. Well, about 2 months later it failed again! So, kinda bummed I was, but didn't really have the money to spend so "frivolously". One beautiful day at Starbucks MJ asked if I happened to know anyone who would want a piano! She had this one that had just been lanquishing in the basement and no one had ever really played it and now they would love to have it gone to make room for her daughter to move home and have more of an apartment-style living space. Imagine her surprise when I said that someone would be me!! So, we craigslisted the old piano, got rid of it and promptly headed to MJ's to get this beauty! It's in pretty decent tune (I can probably wait a while to have that done!) and it fits perfectly in the house! All that for a batch of Coffee Toffee Cookies! Thanks to her hubby for helping us move it, too! Hope we didn't do his back too much harm!! Now to think pretty seriously about starting piano lessons for Tiana, too! YAY!!

Fun Stuff!

Ok, I'm not even going to begin to try to understand this picture, but I will tell you that the sounds of giggles and chatting were quite fun to have around. These three girls have known each other for a good number of years now, since they were all in CampFire USA together!! As time has gone on and school has become more involved, they've kind of grown apart, but have recently "re-found" each other. They spent the afternoon together yesterday and did a bit of catching up, hair makeovers, blog creation and general good time-havin'! I found them all like this and just had to document the un-understandable habits of the human teenager!!



I look forward to more giggles in the future, and my hope is that they all understand that our home is a welcome haven of simplicity in an ever-changing, confusing world.

Parenting...

I don't feel like I have a lot of rights to talk about this, but my heart is both overflowing with thanksgiving for the blessings of a stable home and the heartache of watching teenagers deal with life. We've definitely had our struggles, but I'm very thankful to be able to say that I feel, with divine intervention and outside counseling, we are making baby steps towards a whole, happy family. In the last while we've been spending a lot of time with a lot of teenagers -- guess that comes of parenting one! What I see just breaks my heart, humbles me, finds me begging for wisdom at the Throne of the greatest Giver of all, makes me want to be all that I've vowed to be. Three weeks ago, or so, Tiana's friend's brother took his own life. The desperate sadness, anger and emptiness over this has been quite overwhelming. We've known the family for about 6 years and so as parents we've also felt her parents' pain, but have felt very keenly the pain that his teenage sister has been feeling. Yesterday we were at the Celebration of Life for Josh. We were surrounded by beautiful young people, a lot of whom I would say are in very tough situations. Many split homes, lots of confusion, on the cusp of life in a tough economy, just very tough. My heart ached for them, knowing that some of them didn't have much more than each other to lean on, and not that that has no value, but another "unstable" teenager isn't going to hold you up for long. After the service another friend from CampFire (this is how we came to know Josh's family, too) came up to me in tears and just leaned on me for a few minutes. Last night we texted for a long time. The poor thing has no one really to talk to and doesn't even know how to open up. This is the thing I fear the most for these kids -- that they bottle things up, never learn the tools to deal with their emotions, close themselves off from family and friends, and then end up another statistic. I've seen other of Tiana's friends turn aside because of their own feelings of, maybe, self-worthlessness, frustration, loneliness, and I fear that by turning away the very people that could be a great friend to them, they are setting themselves up for even more pain.

Anyway, I'm not sure, really, the point of this post, but I just want to say how thankful I am that I know a God who loves and cares and that He has put in me something that is drawing some of these children to me, to us, and my prayer is that all of us, as parents, grandparents, adult friends of teenage children be given the wisdom that we need, the extra love we need to help them through some extremely tough years. From the vantage point of -- it's still quite a few more years through our teens -- it seems a long road, but I have growing faith that together we can make it. To all of you who are reading this and are simply adult friends to these kids -- thank you!! It makes our jobs as parents easier when you are to them a strong, upright role model in their lives!!

Big Weekend!!

So, school was out on Friday, but first on Thursday night we tried to go to see our friend Grant's play. Bummer deal, it was cancelled due to a power outage at the school! From what I understand, it was great and I'm very sad that we missed it! Friday night found us, with an extra kid, down near the airport because we had an early morning on Saturday for Tiana and said friend to be in All-State Choir rehearsals. Kent spent the whole weekend down there for an automotive expo and some classes. He was there Friday through Sunday morning. Saturday, mom, dad and "the mother-in-law" (whom I love with all my heart!!!) came to hear Tiana sing in the choir. After the concert we all went to dinner and then all of us except Kent came home. Mom and Dad went home after Meeting and Mom-in-law will stay an as-of-yet-undetermined amount of time.

Birthday Time (almost!)

Because we hadn't yet had Ivona's parents over, and since Gordon, Ivona and I all have March birthdays, we had them over to celebrate with an American picnic in the middle of winter!!

From Gordon, Ivona and Melisa's BBQ Birthday

Rodica, Ivona's mother, made me a cake for my birthday! She remembered how much I liked it when she made it for Christmas in 2006! Thank you so much! Mulţumesc mult! Isn't it beautiful!? I wish you could join me for a slice with some coffee!!

From Gordon, Ivona and Melisa's BBQ Birthday

Thank you so much for coming -- I hope you enjoyed the evening as much as I did! Happy Birthday!

Tag! I'm it ... You're next!!

So, I was tagged by a couple of people and am JUST NOW going to get around to taking care of business! I was told to put up the 6th photo in the 6th folder of my photos and tell the story behind it! So, when I'm done, I'll tag the next lucky players! Here's my "LOVELY" photo!


This photo was actually taken on my old cellphone at the annual Gingerbread house exhibit in downtown. We took VJ and Grant for their first tour of the villages that are all made out of gingerbread and various candies/edible stuffs. Of course, since there was a sugar Starbucks I had to have a photo and now you, too, get to see it in all of it's blurry glory! All of the proceeds of the people's monetary votes goes to fund Juvenile Diabetes Research!

So, now then, I'll privately tag the next in line!!

"Here are the rules;

Go to your Picture Folder on your computer or wherever you store your pictures.

1. Pick the 6th Folder, then select the the 6th picture in that folder.

2. Post that picture on your blog and the story that goes along with the picture.

3. Tag 6 other people that you know or don’t know to do the same thing and leave a comment on their blog or an e-mail letting them know you chose them.

~~~~~I HAVE A COUNTERTOP!!~~~~~

A HUGE thanks to my customer Dewayne for bringing my cold black stone today! Well, he brought it the other day, but there had been some miscommunications and quick chats over the register at work and so he took it back to have at least one more side polished before installing it on the cabinet. So, HERE IT IS!!

It was so exciting to be able to do prep work next to the stove tonight and have a place to put knives and cutting boards and food! Now just the lights and some trim! WooHoo!!! (Oh, and ALL the knobs and pulls! We'll keep that secret between us! Kent's not looking forward to doing all of them!!)

Long time no see!

Well, let's see. We haven't talked for a really, really long time. You've seen that mom and dad are still working on the kitchen some. The guy brought the countertop tonight, but I guess he took it back with him to polish the outer edge. That's all I understood, what exactly that means, I don't know, I was locked out of the house. I heard words like "granite", "stone", so I'm assuming that's what they were talking about polishing! Dad's been working up on the ceiling on the counter. How come he can put his paws up there, but I get in trouble if I do that?!?! Mom's thumb has been smelling pretty good! Guess she took a huge gouge out of it and so it's been smelling pretty good to my nose! Sister had a funky looking arm for a few days about the same time Mom's thumb got interesting. She fell and had to have it in a big ol' splint! Boy, stay away from the girls! The oopsies might be contagious!!! Around here the weather has been quite fine. During the day when it is daylight it is sunny and toward evening time when the peeps are home, it gets rainy. Perfect if you ask me!!! Mom has LOTS of pretty flowers in her flower bed! Anyway, that's about it. I guess I better let my secretary get to making Dad his mocha! She promised him!