"Better Than an iPhone"

This is what Anthony said about his Christmas present, and made me feel really good. It is hard to compete with an iPhone, after all, but I hoped it would be fun to go to a game and show the kids where Daddy went to college. We had really good seats on the floor level and watched Carolina beat up on Elon. Honestly, I was worried that this might be one of those experiences that sounds fun, but turns out to be not-so-great - like carving a pumpkin. I was so happy to be so wrong! The kids had a GREAT time and were really well behaved (read: very little whining). Joshua loved every minute - the cheering, the dunks, the free throws - everything. It was so fun to see him almost giddy.

Anna has declared herself to be forever a Tar Heel, with Clemson and Appalachian State being further down on the list. She also says Tyler Zeller is her favorite player. For those who know anything about the UNC campus, here we are at the famous Old Well. There were TONS of people walking around campus prior to the game. That is to be expected, of course, but it was really funny how obvious it was that they were all alumni with their kids. We fit right in with the over 30 + 2 kids crowd + decked out in Carolina blue all walking around Franklin St.

Hill Hall is where Anthony spent most of his angst driven days with all his angst-y and creative music friends. Thankfully, they've all grown up and found it is okay to be happy and produce good music at the same time.

All Dressed Up

I'm a day behind, but my sister has some great pictures of the 4 cousins on her blog: BuckinghamPalace

More to come!

Andrew Peterson and Dollywood

This weekend was a whole lot of Christmas for us! Friday night was Andrew Peterson and Saturday was Dollywood. It was a pretty weird experience for Anthony and I.

Andrew Peterson is a singer / songwriter that I really like. Anthony has barely heard of him, but knows I like him, and so Anthony jumped on tickets that were offered to us. Andrew does an amazing job of weaving together the Old Testament story of a people who know they need to be rescued, and then the New Testament story of that Rescuer has come in the person of Jesus. The entire evening was a bunch of performers who love telling stories and who love that this one of Jesus is true. It made me think more about how I need to be rescued and how wonderful it is that God came to earth to take of that.
You should go buy the CD. No kidding.

I love cheesy Christmas right up there with the best of them. I can recite most of "White Christmas" and "It's a Wonderful Life" and the kids have to tell me to stop singing with the Christmas songs on the radio. Hence, I was really excited about going to Dollywood. More cheesy Christmas with tacky shows and the Polar Express ride and apple cider!!!

However, by the end of the day I wasn't so big on Dollywood Christmas. It was only sort of fun - the weather was too cold and it was too crowded. And the biggest surprise, I didn't just love the cheesy shows. They were a bit too much for me - especially the one the morphed from sleigh bells to the Nativity. However, Anna and Josh loved the shows, so I must remember it is more fun to be wide eyed child and not a jaded cynical grown up.
Outside the Polar Express ride - the best ride ever, according to the kids.

If we go back next year, it'll be on a weekday that is in the 50s!

Chinese Water Torture

This is what Anthony calls the kids constant no-stop request for our time and attention. Parents of young children know what I'm talking about.


Mommy, can you play a game with me?
Daddy, where are you?
Mommy, will you play Barbies with me?
Daddy, let's read a book.
Mommy, what are you doing?
Daddy, can you play football?
Mommy, can you listen to me read this book?
Daddy, can you watch me play the piano?

On and on it goes. I realize it sounds bad that I don't necessarily want do all these things, but I do want to point out that I could play baseball for 2 hours and it doesn't matter. Joshua doesn't grasp that I need to go inside to get dinner ready or fold laundry or some other unimportant item. So after a while it gets a little old and we often tell them NO. On our not so great days we get sarcastic. On our really not so great days don't even conceal that we don't like playing.

But here's what I've noticed... Anna and Joshua are really good at forgiving us. No matter how many times we refuse their requests in an unloving way, no matter how often we speak to them with unhelpful dripping sarcasm, they still come back for more. They just really want their mom and dad to play with them. I find that pretty interesting. In the grown up world, if someone treated us like that, you'd just walk away and not look back. But God has wired Anna and Josh to still really love being with us.

There's some kind of wonderful lesson in there for us.

If We Make it to December...

For the life of a church music director, it is much harder to get TO December as opposed to get THROUGH December. Anthony always puts together an amazing Christmas concert, but it is a lot of work to pull it off. Since he is the glue that holds it all together, he must be at all the rehearsals for all involved parties (dancers, instrumentalists, choir, soloists, sound checks, etc.) You'd think I'd remember this pattern this after 8 years, but every November I am surprised at how tired I am, and how annoyed I am that I don't get much of Anthony's attention. (Obviously, I think it is all about me!!)


The program went off very well. It is Trinity, so we always have some weird issues going on behind the scenes. And for the first time, I am willing to admit out loud that I prefer Anthony's choral arrangements over all others. Previously I'd always tried to be diplomatic and say that writers are talented, and that is true. But the twist is that Anthony's arrangements make me appreciate choral music, and that is a big deal because I'm much more of a loud rock-n-roll band type for church music. I just like his stuff best.


As always, we did make it to December, and after the program I am always very happy for us to get more quality time as a family. Anthony has been quite the dad - building trains and giving piano lessons, and taking me on a date to see Andrew Peterson in concert (woo hoo!). He's also cleaned up a lot of puke, as both kids have had some issues recently.

Christmas is all about getting good pictures, right? Here are the grandparents and SuperDad Anthony.

HTC Thunderbolt!

I now own a smartphone. No, it isn’t an iPhone. And yes, I know if you don’t have an iPhone you don’t have an iPhone. I don’t need my Apple crazy friends to point that out. Black Friday ran such good deals on Droids, so I decided to pay attention and saved the cost of the phone. Of course the salesperson says it is better than an iPhone, but I’m quite certain if I’d said I wanted an iPhone they would have told me how wonderful it is as well.

One week into the purchase, and the jury is still out. It is fun, but I’m kinda scared of it – I’m just waiting for the kids to drop it or I’ll lose it or something equivalent. And I’m quite sure I don’t know how to use this thing to the fullest potential. I feel like I need to take a tutorial class on just the basics of how to hit the right keys when texting or how to make a bookmark. Recommendations are welcome on what apps to get (other than Angry Birds and FaceBook) that will help me enjoy using this new piece of technology.

Also… I can totally see how it can suck you in and I don’t have to interact with real people. For the first few days of ownership I didn’t talk to my family! As much as I enjoy FaceBook and appreciate the vast amount of information on the internet, it can easily call me away from real life. I mean, who wants to read out loud to their kids when I could instead be reading FB statuses of people I haven’t talked to in 15 years?

I think this phone will be a good thing, but I don’t want to be serving it – I want it to serve me! Any advice is welcome.