Overdue...

...for a post, that is.

It's that time of year when Feast-fever really kicks in. And it's kickin' over here. July and August seemed to be relatively slow months. There was plenty of time for leisurely reading, preparing for a visit from relatives, movie nights, bike rides, bird-watching, piano playing, sewing, and anything else one might think to do with time on their hands--on top of all the regular house chores. But all of a sudden, someone mentions, "it's only 4 weeks till the Feast" and suddenly, I'm busy! And not just with a mental to-do-anytime-list, but all these things suddenly come up:

I need a new suitcase for traveling, the fan upstairs needs a replacement, the car needs a new part, there's a work conference to attend, the lawn is growing overnight, the laundry pile looks larger than normal, weeds are taking over in the rock beds, the neighbor will be out of town for a few nights and needs things taken care of, a spokesman's club ladies event is scheduled (considering travel, it's usually a weekend ordeal for us), a new Royal Vision arrives, the Trumpet goes to social media where I must participate, my shoes suddenly fall apart, the garbage is overflowing, and my sleep duration goes from 8 to 7 to 6 hours.

However, I can be pretty extreme about a lot of other things, so I do fairly well managing these extreme bursts of business.

This morning was an unexpected surprise. I must have made Sam's breakfast in my sleep, because there's not a whole lot about 4:30 a.m. that I remember. When I eventually made it to the kitchen, Sam was gone, coffee was gone, and breakfast dishes were at the sink. There wasn't a text from him saying anything taste out of the ordinary, so I guess four years of making the same breakfast pays off--I can do it in my sleep. Usually, I get up at 5 and go through my
waking up process: make the bed, make Sam's breakfast, make Sam's lunch-to-go with snacks, and run on the treadmill. After I see Sam out the door, I have some personal time and then breakfast. Usually, by 9 or 10 in the morning, I'm ready to hit the gym. However, this morning, I peeled my eyes open to see a blurry 7:30. I forced myself to my feet. I felt heavy like a bag of rocks. I managed to make it to the living room, where my face met the couch. I crashed. Suddenly, my eyes shot open--It was 8:00 already! I jumped up and immediately started a load of laundry. By the time the washer stopped, I was awake enough to realize I'd forgotten to actually put the clothes in the washer.

But those who are early risers, I'm sure you can relate here: getting up later than normal (if not 3 hours, even 30 minutes) seems to make the whole day feel off balance; feeling rushed for time at every corner. Breakfast was at 10:00 today. Lunch at 2:00. Blah. The odd times even made my meals taste different.

Even though things got done, the entire day was pretty much a slummin' dummin' day--my term for not very enthusiastic. And being only 4 weeks before the Feast, I don't need to have anymore of those unexpected surprises.

Anyway, here's just a very brief pictorial summation of things that have happened over the past two weeks:

We watched a lightning storm from our front porch one night.

 



The Crepe Myrtles bloomed.

The flowers at the end of the drive really took off! And the clematis--a Spring flower--suddenly bloomed again. Nice (but definitely strange) surprise.

  



Sam trimmed the bushes.

God provided a suitcase (looks brand new!) at Goodwill for us. Since we'll be flying to our destination this year, and getting sucked into the baggage fees last year, we decided not to take any more than one case each (plus a carry on if needed). Sam has had a huge suitcase for years now that is a perfect size for longer trips like this. I, on the other hand, don't. Granted, I usually dont' pack much. But Sam couldn't imagine being able to fit two weeks worth of items in just one little bag, so he issued a mission: find a large suitcase that matches his (in size). New luggage of a large size costs more than either of us wanted to spend (over $150!). Still, the standard size suitcase is 28" (maybe 30"). Since we weren't necessarily looking for "new," we searched craigslist, ebay, amazon--you name it!  Soon, I was hitting the thrift stores in town. I found this one at Goodwill--by itself, it was hard to tell what size it was. Only $10 though, so I bought it.

The new one makes ours look like a little carry-on! It's HUGE.

And finally, you know how some people take their golfing super seriously?

 

Not my Sammy! In fact, were it up to him, he'd probably never swing a golf club (....well....). Yet, because his company calls for it on occasion, he makes himself present. But on this one golfing occasion (his second time round), he surprised himself and did very well on the course, and actually had fun! He had taken a golf lesson a few months before, so he was excited to see that what he learned (and applied) paid off.



 

And now that I've realized it's only 3 weeks till the Feast instead of 4, I've suddenly gotten busier--is that possible? Depending on how busy things get, you may not hear from me till after the Feast.

 

Until then, as always, happy trails!

Siblings

We had a visit from my brother, Jordan, last week. What a wonderful treat!

He arrived early Thursday morning and like a good sister, I made him breakfast. And like a good brother, he ate it.

He had just been to a concert (Boston) and relived it all for me--and after singing along at the concert in my kitchen, I was hoarse too (and stayed pretty hoarse for the next couple days). After which, he found the piano and began playing some tunes. We had a good 30 minute laugh over just how out of tune Kimball is! Because I only tinker (and perhaps I just don't have the ear for it), I don't notice how bad it really is. But notice, Jordan makes it sound so good!

When Sam got home from work, we decided to go out for our first drinks with Jordan--finally! Turning 21 is a big deal. Jordan and I followed Sam to Buffalo Wild Wings 

and ordered a few appetizers to go along with our drinks. Cheers!



After getting stuffed, we got back home and it was time for Sam to give Jordan a 3D experience! They watched Avatar (one of Sam's favourite movies) on Sam's fairly new 3D tv.  

While they watched the blue people/animals, I was able to get a few house chores done.

The following day was Sam's "office" day at the house--to get all of his paperwork from the week done. Well, apparently, Ellises can be rather loud when we get together (okay, even when we're not together, lol). So what a perfect excuse to go ice skating!

After our yummy breakfast of waffles,

there was peace and quiet for Sam as he pined away in his office, while Jordan and I roared in our crazy laughter all the way to the rink and back!  

Between our laughing spells, we listened to (and jammed along with) some old favourite hits that I hadn't heard in forever. We sported our shades passing people (I'm wearing Jordan's 3D glasses he got from a theatre. He's wearing his safety glasses. Super cool.).



We arrived at the rink in one piece. :) We were the first ones on the ice and practically had the rink to ourselves the whole time! There were about 15 people including us. Can't complain about that!

The rink is only open for 3 hours at a time, so after our full three hours on the ice we'd had a lot of our energy sucked out of us with the addition of a few scattered bruises. But as always, it was worth it!

I didn't get a picture of dinner, but I fixed barbecue chicken, peas and corn (upon request), and sweet potatoes. Delish! Oh, and we had my famous key lime pie for desert--finished off by none other than Jordan! 

We had a Bible Study the next day so we had to get up early. I think we all slept pretty good that night--but had a hard time getting up in the morning. It was a long day--but great! I found myself hogging Jordan..."everyone, meet my brother, Jordan!" Everyone was so warm and welcoming to him. And our good friend Kristen was back in town--it's great to have her back in the area! For lunch, we went out to Ruby Tuesday's. Fellowshipped, had the pm service, fellowshipped more then trekked back home.

After our goodbye hugs and invisible tears, Jordan was on his way back to Kansas.







Through Jordan's stay with us, we discovered that Jordan and I are twins--only five years apart. What do they call that? Just "siblings" I guess.

Happy trails!



Boys with Toys

Okay, so it's finally time to relay the story of Sam's new bike. Typically, "new" in my language means "new-to-you," however, this time, I really mean new!
First things first: back in August last year, Sam purchased a 2003 Harley Davidson Night Train (100th yr anniversary edition). Since I don't know much about bikes (only, don't drive them into a tree...those who know the story can laugh), all I can really say is that it had two wheels and an awfully thin seat--somewhat akin to sitting on a bicylce tire. But most importantly, the price was right! It was the first motorcycle we'd purchased since we've been married.

It wasn't too long before he was ready for a new scrambler.

Now, I've purchased things off e-bay before, but to sell I hear it's not necessarily free. And since "free" is me, I opted for creating an ad on good 'ole Craigslist. We had the ad posted for four weeks with no bites. In the meantime, we have a local Harley Davidson store only 7 miles down the road from us. How convenient for Sam as he likes to stop in and make an occasional appearance to get the scoop on what's new and to keep his eyes open for a bike that might have his name on it. On one of his recent visits, he mentioned to the owner that he was trying to sell his 2003 Night Train. Glen asked him what he wanted for it and Sam told him (no, I'm not telling you all the details!), after which Glen said, "I can sell it for you."

After four weeks of no success on Craigslist, I wasn't too optimistic that Glen could sell the bike for the price Sam wanted. When dealing with things like money, contracts and signatures, Sam likes to have another brain in the mix--just in case he misses something (and for
extra wisdom ha ha!). So of course, we talked about a final price that we wanted to sell it for--at least get out of it what we paid for it. So, we entered "the room" and as we were discussing the final details for selling the bike--the listing price, Glen's commission on the bike, and Sam's final cut--somehow, they'd managed to talk the price down. Glen kept asking, "But what's the least you would take? Remember, we have to sell it at a 10% increase for my commission..." So Sam kept reevaluating, just what is the least I would take? And he came up with a number lower than what we started out with.

Ecclesiastes 3:7 "A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak."
I decided this was a time to speak...

"Wait a minute," I said. "Glen said he could sell it when you gave him your original selling price. Why should we lower that? This is the price we wanted out of it. If it doesn't sell," I tried to jest lightly, "then Glen here isn't the salesman he thought he was." Of course, I didn't mean to be dogmatic about it with Sam or question his intelligence--because he IS the decision maker in this house--but I did mean to let Glen know that we weren't going to be suckered! Naturally, Glen backed up his original statement with, "yes, I'm sure we can get what you want out of it." To which Sam then felt confident in sticking with his original price.

If you've been skimming through the story so far, well here's the punchline: the bike went up for sale Friday afternoon and sold on Saturday! And we got the money on Monday. Either the right guy showed up at the right time, or the price was just too good to pass up. And perhaps God had His hand in all of it. But it put Sam back in the market for a bike--pronto.

As it happens, there was a bike at the local store that Sam was eyeballing. For a few weeks actually, he'd somehow manage to maneuver his way through the store just to stand next to it.

It's like when you're dating someone you really like: it's never good enough to be at an event together--you have to be close to them, where sometimes close doesn't ever feel close enough. And what made him like this particular bike over all the others, I'm still not quite sure. But why does anyone like one thing over another? Every time we visited the store, Sam would ask me to find the bike he liked--teasing me about my untrained eye. I used to be good at the card game "memory," and so I would go to the spot where I'd seen it before--left side of store, second row, first one--until they rotated all the bikes.

Upon selling the Night Train, Glen told us that if we wanted to get this other bike (a 2012 Deluxe), and if we were to do it that day (or relatively soon) we wouldn't have pay a certain fee (because of the turnaround). That fee happened to be a nice chunk of change. Since Sam had been interested in the bike for a while now, it's not like he had to make up his mind whether he really liked it or not--he'd already tried it on for size. But being a 2012 bike, well, you just don't buy a new bike! So it all came down to my number one priority: is it the right price?

Once again, Sam and I found ourselves in "the room" with Glen, ready to talk business, when suddenly, Sam stood up and said, "she's the negotiator. See what you can work out." And he left. Talk about being fed to the wolves... At the same time, it really showed me that Sam appreciates and respects my opinion in these matters. And since we're talking about a bike--something he drools over if it's the right one--perhaps he realized it was best that he not make a decision being in "biker-heaven" where every answer is "let's ride!" So he had me in there, knowing my mind wouldn't be clouded by motorcycle fumes. So there I was: a woman trying to negotiate with a man...about a bike. But perhaps my disinterest in bikes worked to my advantage. It's easier for me to say, "take it or leave it" and actually not get my feelings hurt if you leave it.

There was the list price.
Then, the price he offered Sam.
Then the price he dangled in front of me.

So I said, Here's how it's gonna be mister! Just kidding. I think I was polite. But I don't like bantering back and forth with prices (...so I guess I'm really not much of a negotiator after all). But it feels dishonest saying "I'll give you this much" when really I may be willing to give more for it. So I said, "We're talking about a new bike here. Who can afford that? We've got a budget, and a person can't just spend money they don't have. Now Sam and I have talked about this, and this is our limit. If you can't meet this, then I don't even want to hear a counter offer. It simply means, this isn't the right bike for us."


To make a longer story short, Glen made a few calls, and that was that. He got the price, plus tax. Unbelievable. Of course, Sam still had to make the final decision, and after another 30 minutes that felt more like five hours, he gave the final "let's do it!"

The proud owner of a Harley

The following week, Sam had some work done on it--oh don't you know, there's always some tweaking to do. The week after, he put some new exhaust pipes on it--gives it a more grueling sound. This week, he had extended foot pegs put on. And I'm sure in the next few weeks or so, he'll have more work done on it.

Boys with their toys.....

Musical Matters

I had my last piano lesson this week. And what a ride it's been! Before leaving, my music instructor allowed me to snap a picture of her. Say hello to Mrs. Stem.

While I won't be continuing with private piano lessons, I will still be learning and practicing at home. I've really come so far in just 8 weeks--I'm seeing a lot of potential in myself. Am I being too optimistic? Am I fooling myself into thinking I've come so far, when really I've only memorized little tid bits? Either way, I think it would be foolish of me not to continue in some form. So I'll be continuing in the work book I have at home. But the overall reason I haven't signed up for another semester of piano lessons is because I've signed up for voice lessons instead!

Two weeks into piano, I found myself asking Mrs. Stem for vocal tips. "Am I damaging my voice by singing this way," or "how do I increase my range?" And pretty soon, we were talking about voice lessons. I asked Sam about it, and with his full encouragement, I signed up! Every Monday after piano lessons, a 30 minute voice lesson followed. 

And I must say, while I have been eager to learn piano, I am only that much more eager in voice. I've never had voice lessons before, but the older I get and the more I sing, the more unsure I am if I'm "doing it right." Sometimes, I don't know if it's just a matter of tone of voice--simply put, that's just how I sound--or if it's about the technicalities of singing. And just what are they?

Not quite sure...but I'm learning.

I'm realizing that I've always sung (is that the right verbiage, "sung?") with a chest voice. Of course, choir calls for the "operatic" voice, but otherwise, it's all chest. And all these years that I've been singing in my chest voice, I haven't been singing with my head voice.

While that statement seems redundant, the implication is that I haven't been practicing with my head voice at all. So not only do I not really know how, but I have no control over it either. I am all over the place! Sure, I can hit some high notes, but that doesn't mean anything if I can't control them. And boy oh boy has it shown in every single lesson!

I'm also finding out that I'm so unnecessarily tense, resulting in a lot of strain on my voice. When I'm alone in the house, I could be singing freely (with a head-voice), not thinking anything about it, but if I were to notice a fly watching me, or should a squirrel outside the window pay me any attention, I immediately get tense and try reverting back into my chest voice. I know, I don't understand myself either. How do I overcome that? That's a question for anyone to answer. I'm open to all suggestions.

Voice lessons for the fall semester will begin August 13th. Booyah.

In the meantime, while I continue to practice piano and work through my frustrations at home, there are some questions I have that go unanswered. And for a while now, I've had this one specific question that I can't seem to shake. The question is: Why do the bass and treble clefs read differently? Or rather, couldn't we make them read the same? There are five lines in each clef, and four spaces. The treble reads E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F. The bass reads G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A. Wouldn't it be a lot easier if they were the same? .

Every time I get stumped with something, I write it out on paper--it usually helps me to see things more clearly. So that's just what I did. And just when I thought I convinced myself that my theory couldn't work, I suddenly found a way that it could!

These are my scribblings that led to a new idea...

So, the notes on sheet music read like this: 

But all you musicians out there, get ready for the next big thing! What I am proposing could revolutionize the music industry! The new scale:

So instead of having Middle C by itself, it is joined by "Middle A." Result? Both clefs now read the same way.

So, while the original scale has worked for many, many years, wouldn't this be a whole lot easier to READ. I didn't change the notes (because that would go against math, science, and music!). My proposal wouldn't even change the way music is written. It would only change the way music is read.

You may be wondering what the reason is for all this. Beethoven didn't seem to have any issues with it. None of the Greats did. In fact, none of the not-so-greats had any qualms about it either.
So am I the first one to have proposed an idea like this? It seems such an easy solution. An easy solution to what? you say. Any easy solution to the strain on my brain; so instead of having to learn two different clefs, they would read the same.

But while I've invested much time and effort into wondering why things are the way they are, and even gone so far as to propose a new method to change it, I seem to be okay with the answer, "that's just the way it is." However, if there is another reason out there, if there is a fable of why the originator of the bass and treble clef wrote the sheet music to look the way it does, choosing one way over the other, I'd love to hear about it. Perhaps it was a matter of space of paper vs ease of reading. Perhaps the originator was such a genius, he didn't even think about it!

In the meantime, I'll just learn the bass clef too, and soon this whole thing will be no big deal.

Sometimes Problems Aren't As Problematic As They Seem

Over a year ago, when I got Ginny (my German car), I noticed that many of the gadgets were in odd places--at least compared to what you might find in an American vehicle.  For example, the window controls: instead of being on the door, they are where my armrest and automatic shifter are. And instead of reading "A/C," the cars' air button reads "EC." And all the gadgets on my window wiper and blinker knobs are backwards, and the dials on my dash are in some foreign scale. So it was quite an adjustment to get used to (and still is).

As it happens, all summer long I thought my car was just "out of a/c" (as though the solution was as simple as adding fuel or something).

Maybe there was a problem with a hose somewhere. Or maybe a fuse was out. For all I knew, there could even be some kind of separate battery just for the a/c. That's how little I know about cars and their complex functions.  "Or maybe," Sam suggested, "you just need some freon!"

Well, it's not like I'm the kind of person that thinks I'm going to die without a/c. And whether I'm just being lazy, cheap, or just plain silly, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if we didn't fix the problem. I mean, it's definitely nice to have the a/c, but it's a luxury that I don't mind living without (in my car! AC in the house is completely different). Of course, should I use the car more than once or twice a week, I might have a different opinion. :)

But because Sam always wants the best for me and because he just couldn't imagine me driving around in this crazy heat with no a/c, he had me purchase this thing called A/CPro (NOT CHEAP!); and so I did.

Now, typically, I'm not one to read directions.

"LET ME GUESS: STEP 2, ADD SAND."

But because cars and mechanics aren't my strongest subject, I really needed a starting point and some guidance on how to use the stuff--I'd think something like this really deserves some attention given to instructions. So I began with the directions and found that, not only is there a service port that you're supposed to hook the end of the hose to, there's a service port that you "must NOT" hook it up to--or explosion could be your result. I stopped. Perhaps I shouldn't be messing with this... See, it's no wonder I skip the directions. They just make things even MORE confusing. I was to hook the hose up to some low side service port. Obviously, they didn't write these instructions with me in mind. "Low side?" Okay.....? "Low" in regards to what? Do I need to crawl under the car? Just where do I find this port? Next to the compressor. What's that? Google came in handy, but YouTube was even more helpful--they have some pretty cool DIY videos on there (I may just start doing my own car maintenance from now on with the aid of YouTube tutorials! BAH!).

 

So after finding the right service port and checking the pressure, the gauge told me that all was good and I didn't need to add the ACPro after all. All the effort I'd put into learning about this service port and system...and it wasn't the problem?

Yeah, just a little disappointing. If it wasn't something a little ACPro could fix...it had to be something major!

A couple days later, I drove Sam up to the shop to pick up his bike. On our way, windows down, heat closing in on us, Sam said, "well let's at least turn the vent on!" So instead of pushing the EC button, he pushed one of the others.

This is what the controls look like. Go figure, right!?

We noticed the air suddenly turned cool...then cold....


Who would have thought to look up what EC really means? Yeah. It means "economy." Which of course, does NOT mean AC! Oh, if only I were a blond--what a good cover I'd have! There's always someone or something else to pin things like this on, but alas, in this case, I'm afraid I'm just a true dunce. And while I feel a little (...okay, A LOT) silly about the whole thing, I've just gotta laugh and be thankful that the poblem wasn't as problematic as I thought!

Too Busy to Blog

It took me a couple years to catch on to what "scattered showers" really meant here in Tennessee...
                             

Where I grew up, the radius for rain was a little larger. But on this planet, one side of town can get soaked, while the other side is dry and clueless. I guess rain clouds out here are a little smaller.

Life must be boring if I'm talking about weather, right? 5 years ago, I would have thought the same thing.

But when Sam and I were dating, I couldn't help but notice that he talked about the weather a lot. One day, I finally asked, "Am I that boring that we're talking about the weather again?" So he explained, being in the roofing business, the weather is a huge part of his daily schedule. So everything I knew about "weather talk" being one of those telltale clues that shout "BORING!" went right out the window! And ever since, it's been part of our daily chats.

Speaking of weather and rain, it's been raining all week long. And when it lets up, it's still wet, grey and muggy. It's not very pleasant weather for riding the two-wheeler.

But it's the perfect kind of weather to curl up in a ball, snuggle under a blanket together, and let the one-eyed-monster suck our brains out. Since it hadn't rained in forever a month, we decided to do just that! Sam was so kind to sacrifice his space thriller for one of my "girly" movies: "Mirror Mirror."


My review: "It's pretty good."
Sam's review: "Not so much."

So if you were debating on watching the movie, that should help! BAH!

Other than the weather, there's been plenty going on--I just haven't taken the time to blog about it. There's been the weekly piano lessons (they're always a trip!),  voice lessons (that's right--did I forget to tell you about them?), discovering products like stain remover (one that actually works) and "Liquid Plumr" (to make life a little easier), working on building a better wardrobe, and purchasing a new motorcycle for Sam (I have yet to post about that one!).

Yes, it's good to be busy! But I'm pretty determined that no matter how busy we get, I'll stop in to make a post (still shooting for that once-a-week goal).

So until next time, happy trails! And here's my quote of the week, for all those who may get caught up in the stress of life and perhaps wonder why every day the remote seems to be on repeat:

Taking a Moment to Appreciate the Differences

I've always thought that the differences between a married couple are very healthy for the relationship. It's what shapes us into better individuals and a stronger unit as we see through the other's eyes; changing for the better or just accepting the strange and cockamamie differneces (I'm forever using that word now!). Or, as Mr. Malone so nicely put it a few weeks ago, it's our differences that complement each other.

Of course, you have "rights" and "wrongs" in your principles; in which case there should be no compromise.

But then you have these things called "preferences." One is not right over the other. There isn't just one right way to fold laundry, replace the toilet paper on the dispenser, how to leave your toothpaste tube at the sink, pattern in mowing the lawn, styling your hair, way to drink coffee. And the list goes on.

This probably won't sound too foreign to other married couples, and perhaps those of you who have surpassed our 4 year mark can laugh out loud here knowing all too well. Yes, sometimes we remain stubborn about our preferences.

And sometimes, we just have different methods of getting things done....

Sometimes we struggle trying to see things from the other's perspective.

And communication is important; in our marriage counseling, a whole chapter was devoted to it. Well, we're not always perfect at that....

And then there's the silent way of expressing when someone's upset...

 

But overall, when I see the BIG picutre--as in, beyond the "I'm right and you're wrong" mentality--I'm so glad that we are different. Not only have we grown individually by working through our differences, but we've grown together coming to appreciate them rather than resent them.

Patience, love and joy have been the most productive outcomes of our differences--and I wouldn't trade that for anything. So while at times, we can look at each other like the other is the weird one,

with some patience and love, we eventually come around.