A Plethora of Friday Men

I may have bit off more than I can chew. I decided it was high time to met all of these men my husband is hanging out with every day at “work”-and their wives.

Possessed by insanity, I said to Biceps, “Sure, invite all 30 guys (and wives and kids) over to our house on Friday. I’ll cook up some spicy chili.”

Sounds easy enough, right? And then I realized these men are MEN and won’t be eating one measly little “serving” of chili.

They’ll probably want two or three servings, if not more-and let’s not forget the wives. All in all, I’ll need enough for maybe 60+ servings. And then I began to make my grocery list.

Photo Source-Amazon.com
I’ve decided in order to offset the cost of aforementioned grocery bill, I will be shooting a firefighter’s calendar that same evening, unbeknownst to my guest.

I will be taking orders*.

*you better know that I am kidding.

Pruning and Growth-Ouch.

Dear Readers:
Have you ever had everything pruned from your life all at the same time and totally out of the blue, causing you to wonder, “What the heck just happened?!”.
(If so, I would love to hear about it. I think it’s encouraging sometimes to know that you are not alone in the stage of life you are in.)
However, one thing that I have learned-just like in the world of gardening-pruning creates growth.
And, I want to grow.
But sometimes, I don’t enjoy the growing pains. There’s a reason they’re called “pains“.

The first major change in my life this year was losing this guy-Cowboy.

It may be just a cat to the rest of the world, but he was my buddy for eight years. Cowboy rode on my shoulder as I: did the dishes, folded laundry or talked on the phone. He looked for me and would make ewok sounds if he couldn’t find me. He slept on top of me most nights and lept into my lap as soon as I allowed. He passed away too early.
I really didn’t think I could miss an animal this much, but I do.

 

This is not our old church-it’s some Catholic church somewhere..
After attending our church for the last ten years, Biceps and I knew it was time to leave. That meant, the end to him drumming every Sunday morning, the end to us teaching the youth, the end to mowing the lawn and caring for the church’s general overall cuteness factor.
And it also meant the end to our relationships with our pastors and many of our friends.
It was weird to quietly fade into the night. We are presently living in the “Bible belt” so finding another church isn’t a problem. We just want to be at the right one. There are a lot of weird ones out there.

 

Biceps has pretty much quit doing this (kicking butt on stage) for over fifteen years. I have been to thousands of his shows, toured for years with him and his bands, sold merch, drove the bus, did the accounting, wrote the thank-you notes and ate the crappy food.
This life as the band wife has been wonderful and exhausting.

 

But presently, he has started doing this.
No, not serving chili…being a fireman and serving chili at the Firemen’s Chili Feed.
I know, he looks good doing both things, really.

 

And then lastly-my lovely Iweb site crashed earlier this year-leaving me stranded for months without the ability to blog. I lost contact with almost all my blogging buddies, missed out on fantastic link parties and had to rebuild my readership/friends/followers. (Won’t you be my friend, please?)
The Iweb pruning caused some major growth within me.
And while I watched my friend’s blogs grow and grow, I was forced to sit back and save my pennies, waiting to hire someone to rebuild my site in a better platform. This new site is much better, but I am still dealing with the repercussions of being out of the blogging community for almost 8 months.
Unexpectedly, the world didn’t end without my blog up and running.

With each passing year, I gain the growth from pruning-along with a few gray hairs. But isn’t that why gray hairs are referred to as wisdom?
But each trial, each pruning session, has brought me closer to the fact that I know nothing, and reconfirmed that everything I own could blow up and I’d still be ok.
So, with the pruning there are the “pains“.
But, I suppose what I’m saying is that I can survive the pains.

My Dirty Secret-I’m in Love with My IPhone

I am in love with my new Iphone. I resisted it at first, not wanting to join the ranks of the hipsters and the “normals”. But a girl can only resist for so long. And once that sucker became affordable, Biceps and I snatched up an Iphone for each of us, while we were out on tour. It didn’t take but a minute and we traded in our “smart phones” for something so much smarter.
It was almost too easy. Which made made me think.
Just what were these Apple people up to? I mean, I caved years ago and bought a MacBook, yes. But, why is everything so freaking awesome on the iphone? Why does it make photos look so cool?
Was it a ploy to get me away from my $1500 camera that I pinched pennies to buy?
See for yourself.

The subject matter is cute, don’t get me wrong. But, the photo of Bicep’s at the Firemen’s Chili Feed is so normal, so ho-hum.

 

And one boring photo turned vintage, retro awesome. I mean, seriously, Apple people. What are you going to do next-invent holograms?
Oh, you’ve already done that. Hm….I stand corrected.