On Our Way To Crazy

MARCH

Mar 1 – Junior high girls sleepover! You can’t beat a night of twister and making your own lip gloss out of vaseline and kool aid.
Mar 2 – Nap time. See March 1.
Mar 3 – We got Aaron a sweet shirt and tie for the wedding. He is going to look so great.
Mar 4 – My friend Kelley had a baby boy.
Mar 5 – Got some good hang out time with a few girls who aren’t as close as they want to be.
Mar 6 – We got a row to ourselves on the flight to Kansas City.
Mar 7 – We had an excellent food day and got to see the KHRUSTY BROTHERS.
Mar 8 – Wine and dancing and crab cakes and more dancing and a pretty pretty dress.
Mar 9 – I went to a high school production of Bye Bye Birdie where one of my kids who I never ever thought I would see dance and sing danced and sang.
Mar 10 – I had a great, three-hour talk with a girl who wants to be baptized.
Mar 11 – Found some great new curriculum for the junior high classes.
Mar 12 – We successfully convinced a junior high boy that there is only one plane for every state.
Mar 13 – Made plans to go visit my million pregnant friends in Dallas.
Mar 14 – Got to spend some time with the band wives and get to know them a little better.
Mar 15 – Fun dinner out and too many margaritas with friends.
Mar 16 – Had a great junior high girls class about prayer.
Mar 17 – I got to see Remedy Drive play for the first time and hang out with adorable kids and go to Universal Studios for free and spend some good hang out time with the band.
Mar 18 – We made it home after a really long and bad travel day.
Mar 19 – I got to see the final plans for the house we’re renovating for the youth. So awesome.
Mar 20 – We knocked down a million walls in the youth house with sledgehammers.
Mar 21 – Saw U2-3D in a giant theater with four other people and no one got mad when I sang along.
Mar 22 – I had a lazy afternoon reading lots and lots of magazines.
Mar 23 – We got to go to big church, and it turns out I don’t miss it. I heart youth service.
Mar 24 – Great day hanging out with the band at the house.
Mar 25 – I think I found the purse I’ve been shopping for for ages.
Mar 26 – Excellent day hanging out at the park with the high school kids.
Mar 27 – I hung out with an old friend I haven’t seen in a year AND we went to Anthropologie AND we ate samples at Whole Foods AND we had a fabulous dinner at Bistro 215.
Mar 28 – Yummy sushi lunch with my friend Becka.
Mar 29 – We accidentally on purpose slept until 11.
Mar 30 – I saw RENT for the first time and it was amazing.
Mar 31 – Cinnamon Toast Crunch was on sale! (Also, I was sick so not much happened.)

Cleaning supplies to get the house ready for the video shoot: $25

Snacks for the band and video guys: $50

Video equipment fee: $1000

Starting a company to manage the band: um, lots of dollars

Coming into the room to find Aaron playing makeup artist: priceless

This is a post about our trip to Kansas City to see Waterdeep. It was about a million years ago, at the end of an excessively stressful week, but I will try my best to remember the details.

We flew into Kansas City really late on Thursday night, checked in and went to bed. We stayed in a pretty nice hotel (Thanks, Priceline!) in a great part of town with easy access to everything. When we woke up Friday morning, the place was covered in snow.

So I’m trying to get some pictures of the snow when I look down. We were on the 28th floor, and the pool was on the roof of the lobby. I look down and see this:

Can you see that? That guy is swimming. Swimming! It’s freakishly cold, and he is swimming. In shorts. Outside. I cannot handle the crazy.

So we lazed around the hotel for a while before finally venturing out. You may not know this, but I am an excellent travel food planner. We always eat well when we’re out of town. So we headed out for lunch at a place called Jack Stack Barbecue. We are very particular about barbecue, particularly brisket, and I had heard this was the place to go. They have something called burnt ends – I don’t know what they are exactly, but I do know that they were seriously delicious.

We wandered around town for a while before heading back to the hotel. (It was really cold! I am a weenie!) We napped and snacked and watched a movie, and it was glorious. It was so nice to just hang out and not feel like we had to do anything. It’s a lot easier to relax when your office isn’t in the next room calling your name.

Then it was time for the show.

I have to say, I was kind of disappointed in Waterdeep. It was just Don and Lori, which was nice, and they only did songs from the new album, which was fine. The problem was that it felt really thrown together and unrehearsed. I love Waterdeep, and I know they are not polished or flashy or shiny, and I love that about them. I guess I was just hoping for more. It was really great to hear Lori sing live again, though.

But then. THEN. Then the awesome came.

You guys, the Khrusty Brothers were incredible. They came out in these crazy outfits and painted-on masks and way more sound than that little bar could hold.

There were four or five old televisions on and around the stage. When the band came out, the drummer hit play on a little DVD player and a video started that played the length of the concert. It was very cool; half of it was animations and graphics that went along with the song lyrics, and the other half was random video clips – wrestling, Smurfs, televangelists, commercials. It was easy to get stuck watching the video and forget to pay attention to the show. I didn’t get a great picture, but you can kind of see one here.

When it was over, I was waiting for Aaron to buy posters when I found myself inches away from Lori. It was pretty hard for me not to tap her on the shoulder and start talking about how much I love their music and how it means so much to me and we had their song in our wedding and I named my blog after another song and how we drove to that same city eight years ago to see them at a festival and on the way home Aaron told me he loved me for the first time and their lyrics have been the soundtrack to so many important moments in my life and blah blah blah. I managed to restrain myself, though. Aaron is one degree away from Don in a professional sense, and because of that I know that soon enough we will meet them and they will think we are amazing and want to be our BFFs.

After the show we went out for some Mexican food, of course, at a place called Ponak’s. We had excessively strong margaritas and some kind of puffy tacos and the best guacamole I have eaten since I left Texas. We won’t talk about how close I was to licking the bowl, especially after the margaritas.

It was a great day.

Because our church meets in an elementary school, our youth group doesn’t really have a mid-week meeting place. We do a lot of stuff during the week, but our big youth meeting is on Sunday mornings during main service. This means that I haven’t been to big church in about a year.

It’s not my favorite thing. I feel pretty disconnected from what’s going on with the church as a whole. I don’t know a lot of people who aren’t in high school or parents of high schoolers. I think people tend to forget about us down in the cafeteria and I have to work really hard to keep them posted about what we’re doing.

As part of our Easter celebrations yesterday, we took the kids to the gym to be a part of the main service. We sat in the chairs with the whole church body, sang with the worship team and listened to the sermon. And I realized something – I don’t really miss it.

Don’t get me wrong. When we have a building and a youth house and two services, we will be able to have a youth hour and all go to main service together. And I am really excited about that. I think the kids will benefit greatly from being a part of the church as a whole and not just the youth group. Our volunteers are truly going above and beyond right now by giving up church for us, and I can’t wait for them to get to do both.

But I realized two things on Sunday morning. One, I have forgotten how to sit still for 45 straight minutes. And two, we’ve really got something special going on down in the cafeteria, and it feels wrong when we aren’t in there. I hate that we didn’t have youth worship yesterday. I really missed sitting down with my junior high girls at our little table and having class. One of my complaints about not going to big church is that we don’t get to see anyone but the kids. But when service was over yesterday, we all gravitated toward each other. We left and I realized that the only people we talked to after church were in high school or the parents of someone in high school. Those are our people.

Last week a friend of ours was fired from his music business job. He and his wife are moving back to Dallas. Aaron and I were talking about what we would do if this new company thing doesn’t work out, if the music thing doesn’t work out. It’s why we live in Nashville. It’s always kind of been understood that we would go where Aaron’s job took us and I would find something when we got there.

But this time it’s different. If Aaron quit working in music, we would probably stay in Nashville. For me. For my job. Our people are here. We love our church so much. I can’t imagine trying to go through the process of looking for a place like GracePointe in another city, even Dallas and it’s thousands of churches. Nashville is our home. GracePointe is our home. And unless Aaron magically gets hired by the Dallas Cowboys, this is where we’ll stay.

One of the kids yesterday said, “It’s nice to be in main service, but it’s like the cafeteria is our home.” And we all kind of laughed about it… it’s an ugly home with a pink and black linoleum floor and long tables stacked up in the corner and crumbs on the floor. It smells like old mashed potatoes and crayons. But it’s where we do what we do. And as excited as I am about the church property and the new building and the youth house, I think we’ll miss it when we’re gone.

I love getting the mail. I love reality shows on Bravo. I love my IKEA bookshelves. I love talking to the people around me in stores. I love watching Miles book it through the backyard towards whatever squirrel/rabbit/bird/gust of air has caught his attention. I love eating in airports and making up stories about where the people around us are going.

I love roller coasters where your feet dangle out of the car. I love ordering wine in restaurants, even though I could buy a bottle for the same price in the grocery store. I love Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream with chocolate chip cookies crushed up on top. I love big fat magazines, like Vanity Fair and Vogue, where the first three quarters are ads and all the articles are crammed into the back, and I love reading them front to back, page by page, not skipping ahead to finish a story that’s continued in the back but just picking it back up when I get there.

I love live music. I love giving advice to a kid and having them come back ages later and say it stuck with them. I love laser tag. I love hammocks and picnic blankets and swings and anything else I can sit on outside. I love the smell of a charcoal grill firing up. I love stationery and thank you notes and decorative file folders and wrapping paper sold by the sheet.

I love driving with the windows down listening to new songs from Aaron’s bands. I love being asked for my opinion and having it mean something. I love youth camp. I love the tiny wrought iron chair that sits on our console table. I love bright white bedding. I love brisket tacos and fruit tea.

I love reading the book before seeing the movie. I love editing Aaron’s work projects with my red pen. I love watching “just one more” episode of Friday Night Lights or Curb Your Enthusiasm. I love how the seasons here change just as you’re getting tired of them.

I love random sentences that become lifelong catchphrases. (“I don’t know… toaster?” “Crap, Jim!” “White shoes got the meatnormous.”) I love that I grew up in a house full of music and games and orange shag carpet. I love how my life in Nashville is completely mine and isn’t tied to anyone I grew up with. I love that Aaron and I can comfortably fit on our extra-long sofa and no one has feet in their face.

I love bangs. I love bath and body products that are green. I love recycling and using my tote bags at the grocery store. I love fresh mozzarella cheese and fat juicy tomatoes and tiramisu. I love waking up to find Miles asleep on my pillow. I love middle and high school students. I love candid photos. I love Peanut and Phase 10 and especially Pop Culture Trivial Pursuit.

I love having a thousand cousins. I love modern furniture and funky light fixtures and clean lines. I love Jane Austen novels. I love staying up late. I love our curved shower rod. I love walking around the neighborhood with Miles and Aaron. I love Counting Crows and Waterdeep and Ben Folds and Andrew Bird and Bonnie Raitt and the Doobie Brothers and Steve Beck and David Gray and Lyle Lovett and Family Force Five and Stevie Ray Vaughn.

I love that there are so many things I love that I have to make myself stop typing before this post is a thousand miles long. Thanks to She Likes Purple for the topic idea.

The scene: a Starbucks in Franklin, TN, where a youth group is hanging out.
The players: Aaron, a youth leader, and a couple of junior high boys.

JHB1: Hey, Aaron, what kind of music do you like?
Aaron: All kinds of stuff, mostly classic rock and some rap.
JHB1: Do you like Nirvana?
Aaron: Yeah, I like Nirvana.
JHB2: What’s your favorite song?
Aaron: I don’t know… maybe Come As You Are?
JHB1: Mine is Heart-Shaped Box.
JHB2: Yeah! That song is awesome!

Later, after we had successfully convinced these kids that when you go to the bathroom on a plane you have to be careful when you flush or it will suck out your guts, AND that when people go to the bathroom everything just gets flushed out into the air and freezes in the clouds, the conversation continued.

JHB2: Aaron, do you like Rage Against the Machine?
Aaron: Oh yeah, they’re one of my favorite bands.
JHB1: What’s your favorite song?
Aaron: I don’t know, man, I like a lot of their stuff.
JHB1: Mine is Killing In The Name Of.
JHB2: Mine is Bulls on Parade!
Aaron: Those are good songs. Wait a second… do y’all like Weezer? The Foo Fighters?
JHB1: Yeah!
Aaron: I bet I can guess your favorite songs by them.
JHB2: Nuh-uh.
Aaron: Yuh-huh. My Name Is Jonas? Evenflow?
JHB1: Those songs are awesome!
Aaron: Do you know any of their other songs?
JHB1: …
JHB2: YES! But… I can’t think of the names.
JHB1: Yeah, me either.
JHB2: How did you guess those songs?
Aaron: Because you only know the songs that are on GUITAR HERO.

The other day I walked into my office after hours to run off some lesson plans and vacuum the floors. I was on the phone with my mom, telling her about all the stuff we had going on over the weekend. I unlocked the door, walked down the hall, turned into my office and flipped the light switch.

Then I screamed bloody murder.

Because when I turned toward my desk, I saw this:

Oh my holy pajamas, y’all. I have never been so scared. That thing is scary enough on it’s own. But when it’s sitting in your chair in your dark office, smoking a cigar and waiting for you to get there, it is downright terrifying.

After I managed to get my heart rate back down to a manageable rate, my mom asked me if I knew who did it. And I did. This had my boss written all over it. That’s when she said, “Well now you have to put it in his office.” Yes. Genius.

My boss’s office doubles as our conference room. Because of his desk configuration, I couldn’t get the rabbit suit to sit in his chair. But we also have a big leather sofa in there. Perfect. After some careful arranging and some digging in his desk, I came up with this:

(Those are his glasses and stole, and the book we’re all reading for ordination class.)

Pretty good, if I do say so myself. But! There was a problem. This all went down on Thursday afternoon, and Aaron and I flew to Kansas City Thursday evening. My boss’s son got married on Saturday night, so I wouldn’t see him until the wedding and he wasn’t expected back in the office until this week. What if it got taken down before he saw it?

Luckily, he swung by to pick something up on Friday and saw it. And I heard all about it on Saturday night. Apparently there was some kind of big meeting on Friday, so my creation was seen not only by my boss and the rest of the staff, but the head pastor and several board members as well. Excellent.

Me and my new BFF:

Do you have a niece? I do! It’s so weird.

Aaron’s brother Brian and his wife Allison had a baby last Thursday. Although she (sadly) does not have a leap day birthday, she’s still pretty awesome.

This is Miss Olivia Elyse.

How cute is she? The cutest. I know you think your baby or some other baby you are close to is the cutest baby, but you are wrong. This is the cutest baby.

FEBRUARY

Feb 1 – My ‘book club’ finally met again after a six month break.
Feb 2 – The kids packed 840 food boxes for kids all around the country.
Feb 3 – I finally started feeling better after a long night with a stomach bug. (It was kind of hard to come up with a good one for today, I felt pretty terrible and spent all day on the sofa.)
Feb 4 – I cleaned out my closet and possibly figured out how to make that tiny little thing work for me.
Feb 5 – Nice dinner with Aaron and one of the band guys.
Feb 6 – One of the kids who’s been avoiding us came to group and actually participated.
Feb 7 – I read Atonement in it’s entirety.
Feb 8 – We had a big cookout with the band and I almost won $8.
Feb 9 – Really really good lunch with a kid.
Feb 10 – We had a Grammy party for two and it was the most fun I’d had in a long time.
Feb 11 – I read Genesis in it’s entirety.
Feb 12 – Spamalot! And Aaron scrambled an egg just for Miles.
Feb 13 – Fun staff lunch at Guido’s.
Feb 14 – We spent Valentine’s Day eating Mike & Ike’s and drawing dream house plans.
Feb 15 – Aaron and I had a great night of enchiladas and margaritas and bad cover singers.
Feb 16 – Aaron got a fabulous new haircut.
Feb 17 – We went on a late night drive and talked through a lot of work stuff.
Feb 18 – I stepped into the 20th century and figured out how to turn songs on my computer into ringtones and replaced the awful standard issue ring I’ve had for years with Hangin’ Around by Counting Crows.
Feb 19 – The band went home.
Feb 20 – I made a joke involving the line “Onward Christian Soulja Boy” and our pastor told me I’m going to hell.
Feb 21 – Ben Folds tickets!
Feb 22 – I went to a high school production of The Wiz that some of the kids were in and they did a fantastic job.
Feb 23 – Aaron came home and we had a lovely lazy evening.
Feb 24 – I taught the 4th and 5th graders and I didn’t die.
Feb 25 – I went to Opry Mills and I didn’t buy anything. (Because I forgot my wallet.)
Feb 26 – Dinner and drinks with Erin and Deana!
Feb 27 – I read Exodus in it’s entirety.
Feb 28 – We bought tickets to see The Swell Season!
Feb 29 – We went to hear a new friend of ours sing and she was crazy good.