My Brother on the Drum Set

Here's one video as promised.  Below is "Cold Pressed" by David Hollinden.  This is the piece my brother did on the drum set.  It's 8 minutes long, but I didn't want to edit anything out of this one because it was the coolest.  I'll post clips of the others later.  They'll consist of a Snare piece, Marimba, Timpani, and a Trio (Marimba, Vibraphone, and Xylophone).  Beware, the video quality is bad and I'm sorry for that.  I need a camcorder.  :o)

Travels to See Families...

*Sigh* more random people like Jared's blog than mine.  Guess that's because my blog primarily is about what is going on with us.  His is about what's going on in his head.  I guess that would be more interesting... But anyway, this post is what HAS BEEN with us.  Remember to click on the pictures to enlarge.

TIME IN ALABAMA:  

At the end of our Spring Break (roughly two weeks ago).  We went to Alabama to celebrate Eric and Kara's (Jared's siblings) Birthdays.  We were also able to see Kara perform in a Winterguard competition in Georgia!!  She did such a good job!  Winterguard is basically for a competing group of people that can twirl, toss, catch,  and you name it to things like flags, rifles, and sabers!!  It is very impressive!!  Kara is one of the captains for her hometown Winterguard.  She is in an independent group made up of high school and college girls.  Training is rigorous and each weekend they compete somewhere.  I didn't get a good picture of her competing because I was sitting so far away in the stands.  There is a picture of her in the lower right of the below collage.

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TIME AT HARDING UNIVERSITY:

We went to Harding University last Thursday because Chandler - my brother - had his junior percussion recital.  Our family had been looking forward to attending this for over a year.  Most music majors only do a Senior recital.  Bragging here:  Chandler is so good that his professors wanted him to have a junior recital too!!  He definitely didn't disappoint!  Bragging again:  He is A-MAZ-ING!!  I'm glad that he is going to Harding because of the Christian aspect of the school.  Seriously though, he could have attended ANYWHERE with his talents.  Not only is he amazing at percussion stuff, but he has a mind for composing that you wouldn't believe!!  I have my B.A. in music, but I always feel stupid when talking to him.  It can be aggravating!!

Okay little brother - if you are reading this, don't get a big head!!  I still wish you would have come to Freed.  Snobby Harding Person!! :o)  J/K!!

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Harding's facilities are impressive!!  Top left is their recital hall.  Top right is their new MUSIC BUILDING!!  I wish FHU would have had one of these...  I would have transfered to Harding my junior year had I not met Jared... <3>

Soon I will be sharing some bad quality videos with you.  I just have to put my money where my mouth is about my brother.  I have to crop the videos first though... I took a lot of them!!

SOME RARE FAMILY PICS WHILE AT HARDING:

Cousin Kevin, Chan Man, and Nana

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Chan Man and Nana

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Hubby, Chan Man, and Me

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The Men

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Mom and Dad and Chandler

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Momma, Sober Sides, and Me

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Really Good Pics of Mom and Dad...

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I love my little brother and he puts up with me.  Guess he's not so little anymore.  :o(

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ALSO WORTH NOTING:

We should be getting a closing date soon for Lil' Yellow.

It feels good to pretty much be only waiting for a closing date from our Mortgage Co.

I love driving by the house and checking on things.  Spring is here and below is a picture of an example of the pretty plants that were planted for us!!

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Jared and I took some friends by Sunday afternoon and Ashley D. says this is a "Lily of the Valley".  I hope she is right, because those flowers are lovely.  I love how pure and delicate this plant looks!  The owners landscaped a lot with different things around the place.  I can't wait until everything blooms!!!! :o)

Thanks for reading!!  Makin' Music is this weekend.  Eric is in it and Mom Gott and Pop Gott are visiting.  I'm sure I'll have another family post soon!!  

Earnest Money: So much that I'm pretty protective over it!!

Earnest Money:  If you've bought a house before you know what this is.  Basically, by putting earnest money down you are saying that you are serious about buying something.  It's a good faith thing.  You aren't just going to up and walk away and leave the seller hanging.

When we finished the contract on lil' yellow we put a lot (for us) of earnest money in on it.  I was just going to put a little in at first, but Jared wanted to put more in.  He is the head and I'm totally trusting his lead on EVERYTHING!!!  

I'M SO GLAD WE DID THIS EARNEST MONEY THING!!! BECAUSE.....

Tonight after worship I wanted to drive by the house and look at it.  When we arrived, a SUV of college girls was pulling into the drive way.  They jumped out of the car and I could tell they were excited about the house.  I could tell by their facial expressions that they really liked it.  My first reaction was HORROR!!!  I was so ANNOYED that they were looking at it.  I know that nothing is a SURE thing until you close.  I thought about the little trick of the earnest money thing and felt a little better.  I'm still nervous about people looking at it who want to buy it.  I feel as if we've put down so much money,  gone through so much paperwork, and interviewed so many people that it should be ours!!!  I guess one good thing to keep in mind is that it is sort of neat that other people are looking at the house.  I knew before we made the contract that there had been some calls interested in it.  Lord willing, I won't have to panic much more.  I'm so NERVOUS!!  This entire process is OVERWHELMING.  I almost feel as if I'm too young to be making such big money decisions!!  But both of our families are or have looked at it, we got an amazing inspector.... and most importantly we are PRAYING to God to help us in everything.  Hopefully, fingers crossed...  We shall see.

Ziggy, the Painting Pooch!!

Have you ever heard of a dog that paints?  This one does!!  Check out more by clicking here.

I've also embedded a video for your viewing pleasure!!  Ziggy makes more money painting then I think I could.  Maybe when I get a puppy it will paint for me!! HA!!

Taking the Plunge and Buying our Dream House!!

Picture Copied from Real Estate Website

Incase you didn't know, I'm pretty sure yellow is the official U.S. color of 2009.  I think it has something to do with yellow being a happy color :o)  Evidently the fashion gurus thought that in our dim economic depression yellow might help our spirits... (don't quote me on that!)

Well like any fashion diva (yeah right) I have decided that I'm going to not only wear the color of the year, but LIVE IN IT!!! :o)  HUZZAH!!!  

Meaning:  JARED AND I ARE BUYING OUR FIRST HOUSE!!!

My name for the color of our new abode is buttercream yellow.  It is a beauty and we are both in love with it.  I never thought I'd get my "dream home" so soon.  It was just by chance that I mentioned we were looking to rent and one of my girl friends over heard me and told me about this one.  I don't think we will have to do hardly anything to get it "picture perfect".  I can't wait until we finally close!!  It should be very soon.  We will, Lord willing, be living in our new lil' yellow house by the end of April!!  Below are some pictures for your curiosity... ;o)  If you're interested, you can click on all the pictures to see them really big!!

Below are Pictures from the Real Estate Website!!

From Collages Lil' Yellow has 3 Bedrooms and 2.5 Bathrooms.  It is about a block away from the Church Building and I can see FHU from my front porch!! Everything has been remodeled and is new (thus the reason we don't have to do anything).  The house itself is an older home, but I think that's what makes it so lovely. Dream Location Below: From Recently Updated

Below are some pictures of different things that I love...

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Ramblings from left to right:  I'm loving the big front porch (with hooks for my porch swing that I've always wanted!!) and all new, black appliances!!   New showers (Ohh, apartment living memories...)  This place has two pedestal sinks and antique looking stuff all over the place!!  Love the fireplace and the cool brass cover thing!!  My bathroom chandelier is glorious!!  Ohh so soft Frise carpet (this was Jared's favorite when he used to carpet clean.  He says it's super nice and easy to clean!!)  The sink in the Utility room!!  Big wooden plantation Blinds!! :o) :o)

Okay.  If you've made it through all of my bragging without getting sick - HUZZAH!!  And I hope you aren't sick of me.  One last time though... The little yellow house that is about to be ours....

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 I'm so excited!!!! :P

Keeping Lil' Prince

Things have been popping fast for me and Jared these days.  We have so many things going right in our lives presently.  One of those things is that I've taken on a new job!!  YAY ME!!

My new job is providing child care for Lil' Prince.  I don't want to put his name on the internet, but he is the grandson of the President and that's why I call him "Lil' Prince".  He is so sweet and good natured.  The only time he's cried so far is when he woke up because I couldn't get that bottle heated soon enough!!  I think it was also a shock that a stranger had him too.  He's doing well though and he's fast asleep in his bouncer.  He looks very sweet all snuggled up in his blankets!!  

Here are some pics of him.

He got here around 6:00 a.m. but slept in his car seat until 9:00 a.m!!  

So precious, huh?

Not sure about Puffdiddy the pig.  He likes to touch him though.  He also smiles when I squeeze its belly and make it talk.

Too much excitement.  Back asleep while listening to Raffi Children songs.

Girls Nite at O'Charleys!!

There were eleven of us who celebrated Bridget's and Allison's birthdays this month at O'Charleys!!  We had so much fun.  I forget how much I love these!!  I don't think I ever want to miss another.  I hardly touched my food; I was talking so much.  I think everyone had a good time.  Conversations could be heard about TV shows like Gilmore Girls, LOST, the Bachelor, guys we've dated (Sandy's weird first date back in college!! HA!), people we've known from school, kids, houses, etc. etc.  Also the waitress almost spilling our food was interesting!!  We had a really fun nite and I can't wait until the next one!  We did miss some gals that couldn't make it.  Maybe next time it will be convenient for more to attend.

Creating makes me happy!

I'm very blessed to have a husband that provides for me and encourages my crazy hobbies.  I wouldn't have the time to do so many things that I enjoy if he told me to get off my bum and get a job, somewhere, anywhere, NOW!!  He doesn't really want me to work unless I want to and that's rare I think.  Not that I don't want a job.  I desperately do.  But I've found that staying home can have so many pluses.  One of the pluses is that I have more time to be creative!!

This weekend I made my friend Ashley D. a ring.  This is the second ring I've made like this and I think I'm getting addicted to the wire wrapping techniques and pretty beads!!  Take a look:

I know the photo quality isn't the best, but that is honestly the best picture that I could come up with.  I like to call this creation my "Wire Beaded Jingly Ring".  I can make them in about any ring size with about any type of color combos.  If you would like one, I would love to make you one too.  The price is $15.  Let me know if you'd like me to make one for you!

College Road Trip - The Movie

This is a good rent worthy movie.  I'm lovin' Pig Albert too!  Jared and I laughed a lot.  It's a good family movie about a girl (Raven) who wants to go far off to college and her dad (Martin Lawrence) is trying to keep her at home and protect her from the world.  This meant a lot to me since I did go about 9 hrs. away to college.  My parents didn't act like this dad did (thankfully).  But I'm sure they might have had similar feelings all the while.

If you rent it, make sure you tell me how you liked it!!  Happy Weekend!

Video of the Day!!

This is for all of you mothers and all of you gals with husbands... You know what I mean!! :o)

This video is A-MAZ-ING!!!  If you are wondering... this is a "clean" video.  However, I wouldn't show it to children because it might encourage them.  But there is nothing on here that I'm ashamed to post.  Well, momma might not want to watch it.  Sorry, mom. ;o)

Momma Visits during a Snow Blizzard!!

Well things are getting back to normal now and I wanted to post some pictures of the fun times Mom and I had together.  I was lucky that she came to stay with me while Jared was traveling for work.  It was so nice to have mother/daughter time for a week!!  Jared came back just in time to enjoy the most snow that we've seen while being together!  Enjoy the pics!

Below:  We went to "Asia Garden" to eat lunch.  Ashley D. told us about this place and it was really posh, cheap, and had great food!!  Plus, they have massaging chairs!!  Way cool!!

Below:  Project of the week.  Mom helped me make a french memo board.  On this I will display important cards/notes and pictures!!

Below:  Of course we had to make cards while we were together.  We also made some cards at Ashley D's. but I forgot to take pictures of that... oops. 

Below:  I recall waking up and seeing tweets on twitter saying it was supposed to snow.  I told mom, but we weren't really sure how bad it would be.  Hee hee... it was bad enough to snow her in an extra day!!

  

Below:  The winter wonderland that we woke up to!  At least a foot of snow!!

Below:  We were snowed in big time.  Mom decides to juice some grapes that we had and she also made unleavened bread so we could worship at the house.  We weren't able to go to worship because of the snow.  It was very memorable having our own service in my apartment.

Below:  Yay!! Jared made it back in time to enjoy the snow!  He was so good to me when he got home.  He was exhausted, but after I told him I had waited on him to play in the snow he went out right away with me so we could make a snowman!!  I truly have the best hubby ever!!

Below is a video of our discussion as we try to think of a name for our snowman.  FYI:  The video quality stinks after I uploaded it to youtube, but I still like it.