Dining on Crow

I try to reserve this here blog for cute stories about my hubby and kids, but I did want to let everyone in on the adventure I had Saturday night.

Have you ever thought you knew what you were talking about on a given subject and then found out you had it all wrong? That's what I found out Saturday night.

Jeremy and I went to see Ani DiFranco at workplay Saturday night, and I was NOT excited about it. I was planning on "suffering" through it to see Over the Rhine open. When OtR sadly had to cancel because of a death in their family, I was even more ready to walk away. I was grumpy about the fact that it was $43.00 per ticket!!!!, that it was at the Soundstage area (which meant we would be standing for the whole show), and mainly I was grumpy about the fact that for the most part I could not stand listening to Ani DiFranco's music. Jeremy raves about her guitar-playing all the time. I found her songs to be angry rants and I just didn't get what was so great about her.

Then, she walked out onto the stage and ROCKED the frickin' roof off of that place. It was awesome!!!!!!!! I truly don't even know how to describe her guitar-playing. It sounds like there are two people playing with her sometimes. Amazing. BUT, the main thing that changed my mind about her music is that she didn't come across bitter at all. She seemed sweet and even a little goofy. I expected her to scream "I HATE MEN!!!" between every song, or something along those lines. I guess that's a wee bit extreme looking back on it, but, like I said, I hadn't take much time to actually listen to her music. This video on youtube sums up her concert persona (at least for the one concert I saw) - a sweet song, but with a little Ani spunk. :)

Now, obviously, I do have to consider that I have only seen one of her shows, have only two of her CDs, and know virtually nothing else about her, but I have at least seen enough to say I am now a fan.

Just felt like I needed to make a public retraction for some reason.

And the Legend Begins . . .

I tried to post this weeks ago, but I was having trouble with the slide show web site. Anyway, better late than never . . .


Harper Lee has been asking for a guitar for at least a couple of years now. Saturday, her dad finally gave in. He took her to Fretted Instruments in Homewood, and got a lot of good advice from the friendly folks there. She used her own money and was SO proud.
Here are a few snapshots from her first session. Abbey, don't let Anderson see these. He'll probably be frustrated by how she's holding the guitar wrong :).

( I apologize for theses fuzzy pictures. I am afraid our camera is on its last leg.)

Another House Update

Yesterday my sister and my mom took the girls to look for dresses for the girls to wear to Jana's wedding. Jeremy and I had a hard time deciding what project on our to-do list would be the best one to work on during our "kid-free" time. We finally decided to cut a hole in the living room wall just to see if it would be possible to remove the fireplace wall sheet rock and leave it the tongue and groove board exposed. We were afraid there might have been too much repair to be done for this to work. We were going to move on to some outside work after that, but we should have known, once you start something like that, you just have to finish it. (Or, rather, your husband has to finish it.) :)









I was really excited about the results. Jeremy was, too, and especially excited that there is zero repair work to be done. Now, all "we" have to do is remove the remnants of wallpaper and decide whether or not "we" want to paint it!

Storm Victims

I have started calling myself a storm victim, partially as a joke, but also because I have been overwhelmed with the number of friends and family who have offered to help us after we were affected by a "small" tornado in the wee hours of last Tuesday morning.

I am so thankful for God's protection. I don't think I have ever realized so clearly that I have zero control over most of what happens to me and my family. Sometimes it's easy for me to convince myself that I am the one in charge of my life and that I can protect the girls from danger. The tornado was definitely a loud and clear reminder that I am not the one in control!!! The fact that God saw fit to bring us through the storm with relatively little damage to our home and no injuries was definite cause to stop and give thanks. Now that I say that, it sounds like an understatement. I don't know how else to put it, though. We truly are thankful for God's mercy. In fact, that's really all I could think about during the storm, was to ask God for mercy. And, I am so thankful that He chose to answer that prayer.

I think most of you have seen our pictures, but just in case you haven't, here are a few. (I also added a few new pictures.)